ATI acquires XGI

[Rob Williams]

TORONTO & SHANGHAI, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 2006-- ATI Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYT) (TSX:ATY) today announced the acquisition of Shanghai-based Macrosynergy, an XGI Technology alliance company, as well as related personnel working out of XGI Technology's Santa Clara, California location. With the acquisition ATI immediately increases its presence in Shanghai, China, considered to be the epicenter of China's burgeoning technology market. At the same time the company acquires the research and design expertise of an organization best known for its multimedia add-in boards for personal computers.

This could prove interesting in the future. It certainly can't hurt ATI at this point.

[sbrehm72255]

XGI made some interesting products for mainstream users in the past, it'll be interesting to see what it brings to the market for ATI in the future.

[T-Shirt]

This should be good for ATI, fresh ideas and markets, and hopefully a new, more diverse product line

[Rob Williams]

I'm hoping to see even better Linux driver support. XGI currently does a better job than ATI at it.

[Jakal]

This is a good move by ATI. They've also recently acquired CuTe and some of Terayon's (cable modem manufacturer) silicon brainpower.

ATI Technologies announced it had closed acquisition of CuTe Solutions, an India-based designer of audio and digital media software and algorithms. The move is inline with ATI’s recently proclaimed strategy to make certain acquisitions in order to broaden the company’s portfolio in rapidly growing markets.
“With CuTe’s expertise in audio, our customers can look to ATI for the industry's best integrated multimedia solutions,” said Adrian Hartog, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Business Unit, ATI Technologies Inc.

It looks like ATI is going for full multimedia support. With both sound and graphic buyouts, we can expect their full multimedia experience to get better. ATI may still be in hot water but I think they're heading in the right direction.