ATI buys BitBoys Oy

Remember the BitBoys? Or should I show my age and refer to them as the graphics company founded by some former members of the 'Future Crew'? (Unreal and Second Reality were awesome BITD!)  There is news today that ATI has acquired them and plans to incorporate the team into their mobile graphics division.

ATI acquires Bitboys Oy, a leading developer of mobile graphics technology

MARKHAM, ONTARIO, May 2, 2006 -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT) has acquired privately held Bitboys Oy, a 15-year veteran of the graphics industry for up to EUR 35.2 million (about US$44 million). The final value is subject to certain performance-related conditions. Bitboys brings valuable engineering experience, technology and customer relationships that enhance ATI's existing mobile phone multimedia offerings. Based in Finland, the Bitboys team will be fully integrated in to ATI's Handheld Business Unit, and form the nucleus for a key design centre for ATI in Europe.

ATI is well-known in the mobile phone industry for providing high-performance graphics and multimedia solutions; this acquisition enhances ATI's product portfolio with a number of technologies, including OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics and OpenVG 1.0 2D vector graphics technologies optimized for high-volume mainstream mobile phones. These graphics cores will be supported by ATI's common software stack which covers its complete range of multimedia co-processors. This unified software environment allows developers to easily create content for a range of devices and offers mobile phone manufacturers faster time to market.  READ MORE...