 "Nvidia to Acquire PortalPlayer For $357 Million")
In a strategic acquisition graphics chip maker Nvidia has decided to acquire PortalPlayer, a firm that made its name selling mp3 decoding chips, which were used by Apple in its iPod Nano range.
PortalPlayer was established in 1999 and counts among its customers companies like SanDisk, Philips and Samsung.
Recently Apple announced it would no longer be using chips from PortalPlayer, preferring to go over to Samsung instead. This was a major loss for PortalPlayer, as Apple was its primary customer. This loss caused PortalPlayer’s stock market value to crash and left it as easy pickings for others.
Nvidia, who is rapidly looking to expand into the handheld PMP market, saw this as a great opportunity and decided to acquire PortalPlayer for $357 million.
Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia had this to say, “With this acquisition, we are combining the two essential technologies of next-generation PMPs, PDAs, portable game players, and phones: PortalPlayer’s innovative Application Processor technology and NVIDIA’s industry-leading GPU technology. With the products created through this combination, we intend to drive the next digital revolution, where the mobile device becomes our most personal computers.”