Shares in Advanced Micro Devices are on the rise following speculation that the semiconductor company could be headed for a buyout. Share value shot up roughly 8 percent yesterday afternoon, topping out at $4.46 before dropping slightly to close the day. Qualcomm and Samsung have both been mentioned as potential suitors but even still, some analysts feel that an acquisition of AMD is unlikely.
Sylvie Barak from EE Times published an article last week that looked into which company might be the best fit to acquire AMD. First on the list was Intel rival Qualcomm, a viable option as they purchased AMD's handheld GPU division in 2008 for a cool $65 million. The chip maker has no short-term plans to enter the enterprise or server markets but an acquisition could give them more leverage with manufacturing partners Globalfoundries and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Rumors have been swirling for some time that Samsung could be interested in acquiring fledgling handset maker RIM but their name is also being considered for a buyout of AMD. The Korean company has already hired away several top silicon designers from AMD but a full acquisition would mean access to all of the chip maker's patents, a huge boon for Samsung in their fight against Apple. They are also one of the few companies that could buy AMD outright without making a dent in their cash reserves.
It likely wouldn't come as a surprise to many if AMD threw in the towel at some point in the near future. They have had a tough time turning a profit lately and just earlier this week, announced they had taken out a loan for $300 million to, in part, repay previous debt.