That Microsoft and nVidia Deal Is Over Ten Years Old

There have been a number of sites that followed the InformationWeek article and reported that Microsoft has a right of first refusal to acquire shares of nVidia stock on any sale of greater than 30% of nVidia. It’s a pretty interesting concept in general. I mean it would change the landscape pretty dramatically if Microsoft had an ARM manufacturer under its wing. But what’s often missing from the conversation is what the article states about when this agreement was entered into: “The obscure pact is more than a decade old, but is apparently still in effect…” It’s been construed by some that this is a new agreement. What’s new is that people are now focusing on this, but it’s been disclosed in 55 SEC filings,just largely ignored.

So it’s still significant in that Microsoft may be able to make a last ditch effort to buy nVidia if a competitor tries to grab them, and in fact that may be reason enough to make others not pursue them too aggressively. However, some have misconstrued this as a new agreement and it leads to the impression that a deal could be imminent when the facts are actually contrary to it.

OK now that that’s cleared up you can proceed with whatever you were doing…