Cry Havok and let loose the dogs of creativity
Intel’s last round of acquisitions was not very successful, admitted the company’s chief of digital enterprise, Pat Gelsinger. In an interview with the Financial Times, Gelsinger confirmed the new corporate strategy was to let carefully targeted purchases do their own thing as subsidiaries.
Gelsinger pointed to the freedom enjoyed by Havok, the Irish provider of interactive software and services used by digital media creators, acquired by Intel last September, as a model. A strong endorsement of Intel’s Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad by Havok’s senior engineer is here.
Gelsinger said Intel had learned the lessons from the relative failure of the second or third rank assets picked up at fire-sale prices after the tech bubble burst at the turn of the century. Intel had forced the pace of integration and “smothered them with love,” he said.
Intel now looks for acquisitions that complement in-house technology and expertise, rather than trying to buy in new approaches, Gelsinger concluded. Interest will focus on consumer electronics, embedded devices, visualisation and low-cost computers such as its own Classmate PC Netbook.
In his keynote speech at the CES in Las Vegas last January, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said ‘we are now in the midst of the largest opportunity to redefine consumer electronics and entertainment since the introduction of the television.” Canmore, the first CE system-on-a-chip (SoC) product based on Intel architecture, will be out later this year.
