Imagination Technologies share price rockets after news Apple is in “advanced talks” to acquire British chip design company
Apple is in "advanced talks" to acquire UK chip design company Imagination Technologies.
The share price of Imagination has rose by more than 17 per cent to 217p this morning, taking to company's market cap to around £600m.
Imagination declined to comment and Apple has not responded to a request for comment on the story, which was first reported by Ars Technica.
Read more: Imagination Technologies boss under pressure
Apple is already an Imagination shareholder. In 2008, it announced it had acquired a 3.6 per cent stake in the company.
Currently, Apple owns around 8.5 per cent of Imagination shares.
Imagination also already counts Apple among its customers, with the company creating chips for iPhones.
In 2008, Apple acquired chip maker PA Semi for $278m.
Read more: Imagination's chief exec is making a quick getawa
Last week, Imagination announced it was cutting a further 200 jobs from its global workforce as part of a restructuring to save £12.5m by April 2017.
This came after Imagination's chief executive, Sir Hossein Yassaie, announced his departure in February. Yassaie had been with Imagination since 1992.
In December 2015, the company issued a profit warning profit warning due to weak smartphone sales in the first half of the year, the stagnating PC market and a glut of hardware in China.
Its share price fell from more than 220p in November to just over 105p in January. It closed yesterday at 185p.
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