According to a report carried by DigiTimes, Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek has refused to comment on multiple reports which claimed the company was contemplating a merger with American chip maker NVIDIA. In a filing with the Taiwan stock exchange, the company has denied being the source of a widely publicized report in the Chinese media, which claimed it was considering either merging with or acquiring the American company. The original report claiming MediaTek was looking to acquire NVIDIA was carried by Chinese language business newspaper Economic Daily News. The report claimed the two chipmakers are considering the collaboration in order to work jointly with an eye towards the impending boom in the smart automobile market. The rumor is the product of a spate of M&A activity within the semiconductor industry, with Avago announcing a few weeks back that it was acquiring chip maker Broadcom for $37 billion in cash and stocks, after having already acquired Silicon Valley’s LSI last year for $6.6 billion in an all-cash deal.
The report, which was carried by the Economic Daily News on July 1st, claimed MediaTek was looking to acquireNVIDIA in order to consolidate its business with increasing competition in the industry. The Taiwan-based chip maker is also said to be seriously looking at the automotive sector, where it doesn’t have any significant presence as yet.NVIDIA on the other hand, is already a supplier for European automobile manufacturers like Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda. The company has also recently come out with its Tegra T1 chipset, which promises to make it a serious player amongst the automotive chipset suppliers. NVIDIA is based out of Santa Clara, CA, and manufactures graphics processing units (GPUs) for personal computers as well as Systems-on-Chip (SoC) for smartphones and tablets.
While MediaTek has refused to comment on the report saying it does not comment on market speculations, it hasn’t exactly gone out of its way to deny the persistent rumors. Only time will tell whether there is indeed any basis for this recent round of speculations, or if these are indeed the work of someone with a fertile imagination. Whichever way the cookie crumbles, be rest assured, we will keep you posted about future developments.