AMD close to $5.5 billion deal for ATI

CNN Money:

http://wwwtinyurl.com/outhh

AMD seen close to $5.5 billion chip deal

Source says Advanced Micro Devices could announce deal with #2 Canadian
chipmaker as early as Monday.

July 21 2006: 6:35 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -- -- Advanced Micro Devices, the No. 2 supplier
of computer processors, is close to a deal to buy graphics chip maker
ATI for $5.5 billion, a source familiar with the situation said on
Friday.

Any such deal would shake up the processor industry, which is
witnessing a battle over market share between AMD and larger rival
Intel (Charts).

ATI (Charts) is one of two major graphics chips makers, along with
rival Nvidia (Charts), and is a big supplier of chipsets - the cluster
of secondary chips and interfaces that surround a computer's processor
- to both AMD and Intel.

Unless talks break down, a deal could be announced as early as Monday,
the source said.

ATI declined to comment, and an AMD spokesman could not be immediately
reached for comment.

Shares of ATI rallied on Friday on renewed speculation that a deal was
close at hand.

After gaining 83 cents, or 5.3 percent, to close at $16.56 on the
Nasdaq market in regular trade, the shares jumped another 7 percent to
$17.68 in after-hours trading on Inet. On the Toronto Stock Exchange,
the stock finished 99 Canadian cents higher at C$18.77.

Rumors that AMD could purchase the Canadian graphics chip maker
surfaced in late May when an analyst suggested the move could make AMD
more competitive with Intel. The speculation sent ATI shares surging
about 10 percent.

Some analysts have questioned the rationale for an AMD-ATI merger, and
others were surprised that the speculation received no attention from
analysts during AMD's earnings conference call on Thursday.

AMD shares closed at $18.26, down $3.39, or 15.7 percent, on the New
York Stock Exchange as investors worried that the company would not be
able to continue grabbing market share from Intel.