.....with the discussions recently on the forum with regards to Rory Read and John Byrne, these alliances/partnerships and collaborations suggested in the article below between AMD, MediaTek and possibly Qualcomm add to the speculation - is POET part of this?

Qualcomm and Advanced Micro Devices may potentially enter a strategic partnership, given the fact that their respective market interests complement each other

By: Martin Blanc

Published: Mar 13, 2015 at 6:11 am EST

The announcement of an alliance between Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and MediaTek at the recently held Mobile World Congress does not exactly come as a surprise, especially in an industry bourgeoning with partnerships and collaborations. AMD has been the subject of discussions on the topic of partnerships and acquisitions for quite some time now.

MediaTek has planned to collaborate with AMD on mobile SoC graphics, a sign of bigger things to come for AMD, especially signaling a return to the low-power graphics market. For MediaTek, the positives are the speedy graphics processing and improved credibility in the high-end market division. Product association with AMD is always expected to increase validity because of AMD’s authenticity and performance delivery.

In another scenario, Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) could potentially acquire AMD or enter into a strategic partnership to directly compete with industry giant Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC). AMD is currently valued at approximately $2.27 billion, a fraction of what Qualcomm and Intel are worth. Since Qualcomm has always been keen on purchasing divisions of AMD (refer to its purchase of AMD’s handset division in 2009), Qualcomm buying AMD is a distinct possibility, especially as AMD’s fortunes appear to be past their peak in recent years.

However, a partnership with AMD would give Qualcomm access to an exceptionally talented team of engineers as well as an important share of consumers. The strategic partnership would expectedly boost Qualcomm’s progress and provide it a head start in graphical processing and servers.

On top of this, AMD APUs currently power what are perhaps the most monumental consoles currently available. Qualcomm would benefit from acquiring AMD patents. Purchasing AMD would also provide an avenue to utilize the multitude of fabrication plants under AMD’s control, allowing Qualcomm to capitalize on its low-end laptop x86 market share with AMD’s CPUs.

In graphics processing, Qualcomm has much to gain from the sector, as AMD and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) are currently the market leaders in that segment. Securing AMD would make Qualcomm the holder of a company that is currently leading the GPU market.

Teaming up with Qualcomm would allow AMD to be the beneficial recipient of a plethora of market resources. As Qualcomm is an ARM giant, AMD could potentially enter the specific market through its supporting devices and make the transition from an underdog to a market leader. Qualcomm’s $115.91 billion market capitalization would be very useful in providing the expendable cash that AMD severely lacks.

Both Qualcomm and AMD stand to benefit, should an acquisition take place. Companies like MediaTek, who possess a fraction of Qualcomm’s market cap, would lose their grip on sector share. Together, the two companies could bring serious competition to market behemoth Intel, shaking up the tech industry landscape.

Such a move would also take advantage of Intel’s state of transition failure and its failure to break into the tablet or mobile market. While Intel might control raw performance in the short run for a stagnating PC division, such an alliance would make both companies a significant force in the semiconductor market, which would see them go head to head with Nvidia's current Tegra lineup which focuses on a high-powered GPU coupled with a lower-end CPU.

http://www.bidnessetc.com/36808-why-we-might-see-a-marriage-of-convenience-between-qualcomm-inc-and-advance/