AMD Completes ATI Acquisition and Creates Processing Powerhouse
AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced the completion of its approximately
$5.4 billion acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc. Combining the
complementary strengths of the two technology leaders, the new AMD
opens for business as a processing powerhouse committed to driving
innovation, choice and growth in the technology industry. With
approximately 15,000 employees, the company merges AMD's technology
leadership in microprocessors together with ATI's leadership in
graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics.
"Today marks a historic day for our employees, our partners and
our customers as we officially welcome ATI into the AMD family," said
AMD Chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz. "On day one, we are delivering a
winning set of complementary technologies, igniting a new level of
innovation and continuing to champion choice for the industry. Thanks
to the strength of our talented employees, the new AMD now has a full
range of intellectual property (IP) in microprocessors, graphics,
chipsets and consumer electronics to deliver open platforms and
integrated solutions. In the near term, customers gain a new level of
choice, and in the long term, we believe the possibilities for
innovation are truly limitless."
Transaction Details
Under the terms of the transaction, AMD acquired all of the
outstanding common shares of ATI for a combination of approximately
$4.3 billion in cash and 58 million shares of AMD common stock, based
on the number of shares of ATI common stock outstanding on October 24,
2006. All outstanding options and restricted stock units (RSUs) of ATI
were assumed. The value of the ATI acquisition of approximately $5.4
billion is based upon the closing stock price of AMD common stock on
October 24, 2006 of $20.32 per share and excludes the value of assumed
equity awards.
AMD financed the cash portion of the transaction with a
combination of cash and new debt. AMD obtained a $2.5 billion term
loan from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., which, together with
combined existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities
balances of approximately $1.8 billion, provided full funding for the
transaction.
AMD announced the final pro-ration applicable to ATI common shares
in the acquisition. The total consideration to be paid for each common
share, based on the Parent Closing Stock Price (as defined in the Plan
of Arrangement, as amended), is approximately $21.36. The final
election results indicate that pro-ration is as follows:
-- ATI shareholders who elected to receive cash will be entitled
to receive, for each common share for which a valid cash
election was made, approximately US $18.59 in cash plus
approximately 0.1245 of a share of AMD common stock;
-- ATI shareholders who elected to receive stock will be entitled
to receive, for each common share for which a valid stock
election was made, 0.9596 of a share of AMD common stock; and
-- ATI shareholders who did not make a valid election will be
entitled to receive, for each share for which no valid
election was made, 0.9596 of a share of AMD common stock.
Pro-ration was necessary because the cash consideration elected to
be received exceeded the amount of cash available in the acquisition.
Any fractional shares will be paid in cash.
Planning to Deliver Integrated Platforms in 2007
Customers should benefit from AMD's and ATI's combined platform
development and technical support teams, which will be co-located in
Taipei and Shanghai. Combined with the existing Austin and Toronto
locations, these sites offer research and development and support to
provide customers with a complete solution for optimized platform
development.
AMD plans to deliver a range of integrated platforms in 2007 to
serve key markets, including: commercial clients; mobile computing;
and gaming and media computing. PC users will benefit from innovations
intended to extend battery life on the next-generation AMD Turion(TM)
64 mobile technology-based platform and enhancements to the AMD
LIVE!(TM) digital media PC platform that will enable users to get more
from their favorite photos, music, and movies. AMD believes that these
integrated platform innovations will bring customers improved system
stability, better time-to-market, increased performance and
energy-efficiency and overall, an enhanced user experience.
"By driving innovation and integration in processing, especially
in graphics, the new AMD has the potential to empower breakthrough
computing experiences for users of Windows(R) Vista,(TM)" said Jim
Allchin, Co-President of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division.
"We are excited by the potential benefits that this union can bring to
enhance the Windows Vista experience."
AMD also sees an opportunity to deliver processing solutions to
the growing consumer electronics market. The company intends to
leverage ATI's strength in the consumer market by pursuing new
opportunities to invest in the consumer electronics and high-end
discrete graphics markets. With leading technology and customer
relationships, AMD is positioned to address digital convergence by
leveraging critical IP to create new innovations and devices that
facilitate end-to-end content delivery and connectivity to improve
end-user experiences.
CPU/GPU Silicon "Fusion" - Another Industry First for Customers
AMD plans to create a new class of x86 processor that integrates
the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU)
at the silicon level with a broad set of design initiatives
collectively codenamed "Fusion." AMD intends to design Fusion
processors to provide step-function increases in performance-per-watt
relative to today's CPU-only architectures, and to provide the best
customer experience in a world increasingly reliant upon 3D graphics,
digital media and high-performance computing.
With Fusion processors, AMD will continue to promote an open
platform and encourage companies throughout the ecosystem to create
innovative new co-processing solutions aimed at further optimizing
specific workloads. AMD-powered Fusion platforms will continue to
fully support high-end discrete graphics, physics accelerators, and
other PCI Express-based solutions to meet the ever-increasing needs of
the most demanding enthusiast end-users.
"With the anticipated launch of Windows Vista, robust 3D graphics,
digital media and device convergence are driving the need for greater
performance, graphics capabilities, and battery life," said Phil
Hester, AMD senior vice president and chief technology officer. "In
this increasingly diverse x86 computing environment, simply adding
more CPU cores to a baseline architecture will not be enough. As x86
scales from palmtops to petaFLOPS, modular processor designs
leveraging both CPU and GPU compute capabilities will be essential in
meeting the requirements of computing in 2008 and beyond."
Fusion processors are expected in late 2008/early 2009, and the
company expects to use them within all of the company's priority
computing categories, including laptops, desktops, workstations and
servers, as well as in consumer electronics and solutions tailored for
the unique needs of emerging markets.
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of
innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and
consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open
innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior
customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses
worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly
identified by words such as "proposed," "may," "expected," and other
terms with similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are based on
current beliefs, assumptions and expectations and speak only as of the
date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results of the combined company to differ materially from
current expectations. The material factors and assumptions that could
cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations
include, without limitation, the following: revenue, cost savings,
growth prospects and any or other synergies expected from the proposed
transaction may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize
than expected; the transaction may not be accretive as expected; the
combined company may not achieve any year-end or longer-term targeted
gross margins, research and development expenses, selling, general or
administrative expenses, operating margins, capital structure or
debt-to-capitalization ratio; the combined company may require
additional capital and may not be able to raise sufficient capital, on
favorable terms or at all; delays associated with integrating the
companies, including employees and operations; the possible impairment
of goodwill and other long-lived assets resulting from the transaction
and the resulting impact on the combined company's assets and
earnings; unexpected variations in market growth and demand for the
combined company's products and technologies; rapid and frequent
technology changes in the computing and consumer electronics segments;
potential constraints on the ability to develop, launch and ramp new
products on a timely basis; research and development costs associated
with the development of new products and other factors that may affect
future results of the combined company described in the section
entitled "Risk Factors" in the management information circular that
was mailed to ATI's shareholders and in AMD and ATI's filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") that are available on
the SEC's web site located at http://www.sec.gov, including the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in AMD's Form 10-Q for the fiscal
quarter ended July 2, 2006 and the section entitled "Risks and
Uncertainties" in Exhibit 1 to ATI's Form 40-F for the fiscal year
ended August 31, 2005. Please see Item 3.12 "Narrative Description of
the Business - Risks and Uncertainties" in ATI's 2005 Annual
Information Form and the Risks and Uncertainties section of ATI's
annual MD&A on page 30 of ATI's 2005 Annual report filed on the SEDAR
website maintained by the Canadian Securities Administrators at
http://www.sedar.com. Readers are strongly urged to read the full
cautionary statements contained in those materials. We assume no
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether
as a result of new information, future events or any other reason.
AMD COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF ATI QUOTE ADDENDUM
NVIDIA Corporation
"NVIDIA and AMD have innovated together for over a decade. As a
result, NVIDIA GeForce and nForce processors set the standard for AMD
systems. AMD's open platform strategy enables continued partnership
aimed at providing customers with a wide choice of industry leading
solutions," said Dan Vivoli, executive vice president, NVIDIA
Corporation.
DELL
"Dell is focused on enhancing our customers' individual and
organizational computing experience with a standards-based and
solutions approach to IT investment. AMD shares this commitment, and
its acquisition of ATI provides an excellent opportunity for further
innovation and new opportunities for Dell customers," said Jeff
Clarke, senior vice president, Product Group, Dell.
HP
"AMD and ATI are longtime HP partners who share our passion for
delivering innovative solutions to customers. The combination of these
companies should help the industry deliver richer computing platforms
to enterprises and consumers around the world," said Shane Robison,
executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer,
HP.
LENOVO
"The AMD-ATI combination provides a strong new solution with a
wide range of product offerings that ensures OEMs have a choice when
planning to deliver products to market," said Gerry Smith, senior vice
president, global supply chain, Lenovo.
ASUSteK Computer Inc
"We are excited about the newly-combined company's focus on
innovation and the potential for new opportunities and solutions in
notebook and desktop computing. We recognize that this union could
potentially inspire new technologies, platforms or form factors," said
Jerry Shen, vice president, ASUSteK Computer Inc.
Broadcom
"Broadcom has a strong track record of providing leading
technology to the server market," said Ford Tamer, senior vice
president and general manager of Broadcom's Enterprise
Networking Group. "We value our partnership with AMD. And as strong
technology partners, we'll continue to jointly deliver high
performance enterprise products to our customers, including Broadcom's
industry-leading Ethernet controllers and server I/O platform
solutions."