The folks over at Digitimes are reporting that Nvidia has been talking to VIA about a possible acquisition but a high asking price stopped the deal from happening. However, given the company's deteriorating financial performance, negotiations are expected to reopen with VIA coming back to the table with a lower price.
The deal would make sense for Nvidia, particularly with both AMD and Intel planning to integrate graphics cores into their processors in the future - which could make motherboard GPU solutions more difficult to sell. And though VIA's processors are hardly a threat to Intel or AMD in mainstream and high-end markets, chips like the newly introduced Isaiah could do well in the low-cost PC and embedded space, especially if Nvidia combines them with graphics.
According to the sources, Nvidia and VIA discussed three possible scenarios, including a strategic alliance, acquisition of only VIA's processor division, or the acquisition of the entire company. VIA has denied the speculation about a possible acquisition and Nvidia did not comment about this either. It wouldn't be the first time Nvidia buys a chip company to integrate their expertise into its own products though.