NVIDIA's Acquisition of ULI
CoolTechZone has posted an editorial outlining their thoughts on NVIDIA's recent acquisition of chipset maker ULI. Regardless of what your take is on NVIDIA's reasons for buying ULI, it seems safe to assume that everyone can agree this will likely have a significant impact on the chipset market in general. The immediate benefit would seem to be gaining a bit more street credit in Taiwan thanks to ULI's reputation there. Beyond that, it's unsure what segments this new engineering group will be focusing on though the editor seems to think the Intel IGP and mobile markets are the probable answers.
NVIDIA also has presence in India and other countries globally, but not in Taiwan, which is the motherboard hub of the computing industry. That would change now with the acquisition of ULi. It will give NVIDIA the presence in key places in Asia and that in itself justifies the $50 million acquisition amount.
NVIDIA is consequently available on the AMD platform in regards to onboard video, and let's face it, the budget Intel market is far more lucrative (volume wise) than the AMD market will be in quite some time. This would mean that NVIDIA needs to get into the Intel market as soon as possible, and if ULi can help out NVIDIA with its engineering resources, this is again enough to justify NVIDIA's $50 million investment.
Finally, NVIDIA has been rather silent on the mobile platform. Perhaps ULi's acquisition is somewhat of a hint about what's to come from NVIDIA in that area as well. In a notebook, the southbridge designs are critical and ULi will bring with it the expertise of southbridge architecture, which could again play in favor of NVIDIA.
