Bitboys Oy. That's a name that I
haven't heard for quite some time. The masters of all things vapor
back in the early days of Rendition, PowerVR and 3Dfx has
been acquired by ATI for $44 million dollars.
Bitboys technology will be folded into
ATI's Handheld Business Unit where its expertise in power management
will be used to produce powerful and efficient graphics solutions for
mobile devices. The mobile handset market continues to explode and
the demand for multimedia content on the go doesn't show any sign of
waning. From ATI's press release:
"ATI gives us what we need to
reach the next level," said Mikko Saari, CEO, Bitboys. "Their
market presence and ability to sell our products as part of a
complete multimedia lineup will prove incredibly valuable to us. It's
a classic win-win, realizing value for both companies."
"Bitboys dovetails into ATI
perfectly," said Paul Dal Santo, GM of ATI's Handheld Business
Unit. "Handsets are transitioning to hardware acceleration for
graphics and multimedia, and the Bitboys team will play a critical
role as we drive this key inflection point to make ATI the platform
of choice for content providers."
We recently reported that ATI is planning to invest some $50 million into an R&D center in India, that will be focusing on developing graphics for next generation hand helds. Considering that the market is exploding, and that Bitboys was working heavily in the mobile market, the acquisition comes at just the right time.
