By | Tony Smith 3rd February 2005 11:24

Gainward bosses 'buy company'

Parent firm's 69% stake acquired, reports say

Gainward has confirmed that its Taiwanese parent, TNC Industrial, has agreed to sell its stake in the company to a third-party.

Yesterday, Taiwanese news site DigiTimes reported that TNC had sold the Gainward name and the graphics card company's European operation to Palit Microsystems for $1m - essentially by selling its 69 per cent stake in Gainward.

However, Gainward itself later pointed to an MBO. In a statement, Gainward Europe chief Hans-Wolfram Tismer confirmed that TNC has been "persuaded" to sell its stake in Gainward to "a new private investor group, primarily consisting of Gainward's extended management team".

Tismer told news site Xbit Labs that the investor group did not include any other graphics card companies, suggesting Palit has not acquired the parts of the business the earlier report suggested it had. That's not to say that it hasn't acquired some other aspect of the operation, or that it simply approached TNC but negotiations never proved fruitful.

Gainward's HQ will move from Taipei to Munich, a move that had already been announced, but its Far Eastern R&D groups will remain in place, the better to serve local markets. ®