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Imagination Technologies
Encyclopedia
Imagination Technologies Group plc is a British
-based maker of a mobile graphics and microprocessor chip technology primarily known for its PowerVR
graphics and Pure
DAB
radio divisions. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
.
, home audio systems, video-capture and video-conferencing systems.
It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
in July 1994. The following year it entered into an agreement with NEC
(now Renesas) who took a 2.29% stake in the Company for £1.6 million which agreed to license its chip to NEC
. On 2 December 1997, NEC subscribed 2.3 million (1.5%) new shares at a price of 56.5p, taking its total stake to 3.5%. In 1999 the Company refocused on intellectual property
licensing generally and changed its name to Imagination Technologies.
On 23 March 2000, Imagination Technologies acquired Ensigma, a private company specialising in Digital Signal Processing, for a maximum consideration of £5 million.
On 26 September 2001, Imagination Technologies acquired Cross Products Limited, a company designing and producing development tools for META DSP IP cores and Renesas's SuperH
architecture processors under CodeScape brand, for £4.2 million.
In October 2006, Intel Corporation
acquired a 2.9% stake i.e. 6 million shares in the Company for £5.28 million.
On the 24 November 2008, Imagination Technologies announced a license agreement it signed with a new partner, then undisclosed, for a high-performance version of its POWERVR SGX graphics processor chip: this was later revealed to be Apple Inc. In December 2008, Apple Inc purchased a 3.6% stake in the company for £3.2 million.
In June 2009, it was announced that Intel's stake had increased to 14% after it had acquired 25m shares. One week later, Intel acquired another 5m shares from the Saad Group
(based in Saudi Arabia
), and its shareholding rose to 16.02%.
Days later, Apple Inc announced it had subscribed for 2.2m new shares at 142.75p each and made market purchases of another 11.52m shares, raising its stake to 9.5%; Saad Group, who had held 44.6m shares i.e. 20.3% of the Company as at 30 June 2008, was thought to be the vendor of these shares, and had been reportedly forced to divest after its bank froze its accounts.
On the 17 November 2010, Imagination Technologies announced its intention to acquire HelloSoft, one of the world’s leading providers of Video and Voice over Internet Protocol and wireless LAN technologies, for a maximum consideration of $47 million.
On the 14 December 2010, Imagination Technologies acquired Caustic Graphics, developer of hardware/software real-time ray-tracing graphics technology which was founded by a group of former Apple engineers, for $27 million.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based maker of a mobile graphics and microprocessor chip technology primarily known for its PowerVR
PowerVR
PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and Direct X, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL acceleration....
graphics and Pure
Pure Digital
PURE is a British consumer electronics company, based in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, founded in 2002. Pure is a division of another Hertfordshire-based company, Imagination Technologies, which primarily builds processors and graphics chips....
DAB
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
radio divisions. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
FTSE 250 Index
The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December...
.
History
The Company was founded in 1985 as VideoLogic and originally focused on graphics, sound accelerationAcceleration
In physics, acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time. In one dimension, acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up or slows down. However, since velocity is a vector, acceleration describes the rate of change of both the magnitude and the direction of velocity. ...
, home audio systems, video-capture and video-conferencing systems.
It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in July 1994. The following year it entered into an agreement with NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
(now Renesas) who took a 2.29% stake in the Company for £1.6 million which agreed to license its chip to NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
. On 2 December 1997, NEC subscribed 2.3 million (1.5%) new shares at a price of 56.5p, taking its total stake to 3.5%. In 1999 the Company refocused on intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
licensing generally and changed its name to Imagination Technologies.
On 23 March 2000, Imagination Technologies acquired Ensigma, a private company specialising in Digital Signal Processing, for a maximum consideration of £5 million.
On 26 September 2001, Imagination Technologies acquired Cross Products Limited, a company designing and producing development tools for META DSP IP cores and Renesas's SuperH
SuperH
SuperH is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by Hitachi. It is implemented by microcontrollers and microprocessors for embedded systems....
architecture processors under CodeScape brand, for £4.2 million.
In October 2006, Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...
acquired a 2.9% stake i.e. 6 million shares in the Company for £5.28 million.
On the 24 November 2008, Imagination Technologies announced a license agreement it signed with a new partner, then undisclosed, for a high-performance version of its POWERVR SGX graphics processor chip: this was later revealed to be Apple Inc. In December 2008, Apple Inc purchased a 3.6% stake in the company for £3.2 million.
In June 2009, it was announced that Intel's stake had increased to 14% after it had acquired 25m shares. One week later, Intel acquired another 5m shares from the Saad Group
Saad Group
The Saad Group , is a Saudi Arabian based privately owned conglomerate with operations in construction & engineering, real estate development, tourism, medical services, financial services, investments, and education....
(based in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
), and its shareholding rose to 16.02%.
Days later, Apple Inc announced it had subscribed for 2.2m new shares at 142.75p each and made market purchases of another 11.52m shares, raising its stake to 9.5%; Saad Group, who had held 44.6m shares i.e. 20.3% of the Company as at 30 June 2008, was thought to be the vendor of these shares, and had been reportedly forced to divest after its bank froze its accounts.
On the 17 November 2010, Imagination Technologies announced its intention to acquire HelloSoft, one of the world’s leading providers of Video and Voice over Internet Protocol and wireless LAN technologies, for a maximum consideration of $47 million.
On the 14 December 2010, Imagination Technologies acquired Caustic Graphics, developer of hardware/software real-time ray-tracing graphics technology which was founded by a group of former Apple engineers, for $27 million.
Operations
The Company has two activities:- Technology (development of new products)
- PURE DigitalPure DigitalPURE is a British consumer electronics company, based in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, founded in 2002. Pure is a division of another Hertfordshire-based company, Imagination Technologies, which primarily builds processors and graphics chips....
(formerly VideoLogic)