According to a report by Bloomberg the fund, which paid $550m for Imagination and has ties to Chinese state investors, believes the company could fetch a higher valuation driven, in part, by the surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Lazard has reached out to potential buyers and a number of inquiries have already been received, according to the report although representatives for Lazard, Canyon Bridge, and Imagination have yet to comment.
Imagination Technologies designs chipsets and licenses its graphics processor unit (GPU) intellectual property. Among its clients are the likes of Texas Instruments, MediaTek, Renesas Electronics, and reportedly Google.
With some 3,500 patents and a team of 650 chip engineers, Canyon Bridge is said to believe that Imagination’s intellectual property has become more valuable. The company focuses on mobile and lower-power versions of technology that’s aimed at enabling AI in battery-powered devices such as smartphones.
Imagination was acquired by Canyon Bridges following the loss of Apple as a key customer – Apple shifted to designing its own chips back in 2017 and Imagination’s stock took a severe hit at the time.
The news of the proposed sale comes as the company’s CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie has announced his retirement later this year and while the company is mired in controversy concerning its licensing of GPUs to Chinese customers.
Reports suggest that engineers developing AI for use in military systems have gained access to Imagination’s designs and that the company has actually sold access to its designs to proscribed Chinese companies, which the company has denied.
