NVIDIA to acquire iPod chipmaker PortalPlayer

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, November 06, 2006, 01:15 PM EDT

It looks like NVIDIA has made a strategic move and purchased PortalPlayer, a company that has historically developed semiconductor, firmware and software platforms for portable multimedia products such like personal media players, like the iPod, and personal wireless entertainment devices.

"NVIDIA Corporation said Monday it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire iPod chipmaker PortalPlayer, Inc. in a cash for stock transaction. Under terms of the agreement, which have been approved by the Board of Directors of each company, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based graphics technologies developer will pay $13.50 in cash for each outstanding share of PortalPlayer common stock. The deal represents a total purchase price of approximately $357 million, or approximately $161 million net of cash on PortalPlayer's balance sheet as of September 30, 2006. PortalPlayer, which was founded in 1999, is widely recognized for its high-performance system-on-chip (SoC) technology that power some of the world's most recognizable portable digital music players, including Apple Computer's iPods."

Tags: Nvidia, iPod, Chip, IPO, Acquire, Play, Player, pma, ui, port, portal, TAL, make, RT, PLA, AC, IP, id, K

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com

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