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U.K. chip designer still locked in dispute with biggest customer Apple.
U.K. chip designer Imagination Technologies on Thursday put itself up for sale, and revealed it is in talks with potential suitors.
The company already put two of its divisions – its MIPS low-power processor division, and its Ensigma RF and baseband hardware division – on sale in early May; Imagination said it has already received indicative offers for them.
Now though, the whole group is on the block.
"Over the last few weeks it (Imagination) has received interest from a number of parties for a potential acquisition," Imagination said, in a statement. "The board of Imagination has therefore decided to initiate a formal sale process for the group and is engaged with preliminary discussions with potential bidders."
The decision to sell comes amid a dispute with Apple, which in April said it would stop licensing Imagination’s graphics processing unit (GPU) technology for use in its products in the next 15 months to two years.
Apple, which is Imagination’s biggest customer, instead said it plans to use GPU tech developed in-house, but Imagination has questioned whether that is possible without infringing its intellectual property. In May, Imagination initiated a formal dispute resolution procedure.
On Thursday, Imagination said it is still in a dispute with Apple.
