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NVIDIA to acquire Pace Soft Silicon
By agencies
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Thursday, 16 March 2006, 20:30 IST |
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MUMBAI: The California-based, graphics processor major, NVIDIA Corporation is expected to announce its acquisition of Pace Soft Silicon, a Pune-based company. NVIDIA, a $2.38 billion company is the worlds leading manufacturer of graphics cards and has a R&D center in Bangalore.
NVIDIAs Global CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, declined to comment on the acquisition. Anand Khandekar of Pace Soft too was unavailable for comment. Sources close to the deal did not offer details on how much the acquisition is valued at.
However, they pointed out that whatever the size of the deal, the significance for Indian companies is elsewhere. The graphics processor business is technologically intensive and demands a high degree of R&D skills. Companies that have to stay in the business need to innovate relentlessly.
NVIDIA sets up shop in 1993 to focus on the PC business, it spent two years burning money on building technologies that didnt find takers. A course correction later and a powerful arrangement with Microsoft translated into the companys products acquiring near cult like status in the geek world and conferring on it the title of The Intel of graphics.
Since then, the company has expanded its business into building chips for the non-PC business. Growth in the future now lies in areas like the mobile and handheld space. Phone manufacturers and users want devices with more powerful cameras and which can play back high quality videos. This is why it is important to acquire expertise or companies to turbo charge development.
And that is the place where Pace Soft comes into picture. Since 2000, Pace Soft has focused on building multimedia applications targeted for mobile devices. It belongs to a small, but growing breed of Indian technology companies that are focused on creating intellectual property (IP).
To that extent, observers say, this acquisition is significant and will contribute to putting the spotlight on what Indian companies building IP are up to really.