IIRC AMD's cross-licensing deals with Intel over certain key patents are null and void if AMD is bought, which puts a real damper on the main reason anyone would consider purchasing the company.
Does Apple even need to own a majority ownership to control the company? Couldn't they just purchase 49.9% of the company and set up the board of directors in their favor? With that much stake getting the company to do what you want it to do wouldn't be that difficult it seems.
> That really sounds like a winning proposition for Apple, given that Intel's own 64-bit arches historically sucked.
Yeah but for various reasons any usable amd64 CPU needs backwards compatibility with x86 - which, if Apple doesn't want to go the Fat Binary emulation approach again, requires that an Apple-bought AMD must achieve a licensing deal with Intel to maintain said compatibility.
Then again, Apple these days doesn't give a ... about BC anymore anyway, so they might as well go down that track and use only amd64.
That's true, but Intel has as much to lose as AMD if that cross-licensing deal is terminated. So I'd imagine that Intel would want to re-negotiate it with the new party, which is obviously a possibility.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2488/000119312509236...