Microsoft and Nvidia Have Acquisition Pact

An anonymous reader writes "Infoweek is reporting that Microsoft has obtained the exclusive right to match any buyout offers for Nvidia. The obscure pact was uncovered in SEC documents, and apparently stems from Microsoft's licensing of Nvidia chips for the Xbox. But its real value now lies in the fact that Nvidia has become a major player in tablet chips, including chips for Windows 8 slates."

Re:MS is not a hardware company

[aBaldrich]

Well the last time Microsoft bought a hardware company most slashdotters got multiple orgasms on Kinect videos.

Re:I say the oppsite

[sortius_nod]

Yeh, that's bullshit.

Nvidia were already the premier graphics solution for professionals, they already had an established market and were making a fortune at the time selling gaming & professional chips. Microsoft did nothing other than guarantee sales of chips.

While I don't like Nvidia cards, they were already huge prior to the Xbox, so sitting there and saying they were a "niche industry" is just patently false. Unlike ATi they didn't get sold off to a processor maker. Maybe that's something to keep in mind. They didn't get a market position like that from the xbox (considering the sales numbers of xbox vs ps2), the 360 is the MS console that took off, and look who makes the chips for it.

This just seems like a typical corporate deal. It's not unusual, MS were relying on Nvidia not being sold to the competition and pricing MS out of making the Xbox. No company would be stupid enough to leave out any clauses preventing or delaying sale of a supplier to a competitor when inking such a major deal. It was major for MS, but really, Nvidia could have taken or left it.

Linux gaming may suffer

[Turmoyl]

This may not bode well for Linux gaming. For the 10 years I've tried them ATI cards (more specifically their drivers) have never worked well in Linux. If M$ gets a hold of Nvidia I wouldn't be at all surprised to see NVidia's support for Linux falter as well.