Imagination Technologies says cost & job cuts linked to slower iPhone sales

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone
Imagination Technologies, the British firm responsible for the graphics technology in Apple's iOS devices, on Thursday announced job cuts among other cost-cutting measures, hoping to stem a downturn it linked partly to slowing iPhone shipments.




The company will be posting an operating loss for the year to the end of April, Reuters reported. It's aiming to reduce its cost base by an additional 12.5 million pounds ($18 million) per year by 2017, on top of the 15 million pounds announced last month -- to do this, the company will lay off 200 workers and sell or close some businesses.

During initial restructuring the company will be dismissing 150 people, and closing its Pure digital radio business by the end of 2016.

Apple is a major client for Imagination's PowerVR graphics technology, to the point that Imagination has been trying to reduce its dependence on Apple business for several years. Versions of PowerVR designs have appeared in everything from the iPhone and iPad to the Apple Watch.

Suppliers reported a significant drop in iPhone orders in December, and while shipments are expected to rebound, Apple recently guided to its first year-over-year decline in iPhone sales.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member
    iPhone sales slowing down before a 2 year iPhone revision... Who'd have thunk it.
    jbdragonmagman1979
  • Reply 2 of 28
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    rob53monstrosityjbdragonanantksundarammagman1979
  • Reply 3 of 28
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,297member
    SpamSandwich said:
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    I thought they were. I guess nobody is afraid of Tim Cook like they were for Steve Jobs. Under Steve, these people (if they are even real) would have had their "pie holes" reamed out.
    SpamSandwichjbdragonanantksundaram
  • Reply 4 of 28
    ceek74ceek74 Posts: 324member
    More like PureBS.  Sounds like the exec staff is looking for an excuse for a pay raise.
    ration al
  • Reply 5 of 28
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    SpamSandwich said:
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    Don't publicly listed companies have an obligation to inform the market of significant matters that are likely to affect their financial position?
    larryadasanman69techloverrcfa
  • Reply 6 of 28
    luxuriantluxuriant Posts: 36member
    … hoping to stem a downturn it linked partly to slowing iPhone shipments.

    Citation needed. There's nothing of this in Imagination Technologies' press release, which does however say that In the current financial year, both royalty and licensing revenues continue to be in line with the Board’s expectations. While this might just mean that they had expected income from Apple to decrease due to falling iPhone shipments, so it's no surprise if they have, it's just as likely to mean that they did not express a decrease, and that there has been no decrease.
    tomhqmagman1979galeforcehmm
  • Reply 7 of 28
    cfabrecfabre Posts: 11member
    A couple of years back, Apple bought a GPU design shop -- Located in Florida, IIRC.

    The thing is that there is no standard architecture nor ISA for GPU, as there is for CPU with ARMv8. So it might well be that they have come up with their own proprietary GPU ISA and design, and thus do not need Imagination anymore...
    patchythepirate
  • Reply 8 of 28
    evilutionevilution Posts: 1,399member
    AppleInsider said:
    linked partly to slowing iPhone shipments.
    Only partly to blame but mostly not. Their really shit Pure Digital radios will be the main reason.
    ration al
  • Reply 9 of 28
    josujosu Posts: 217member
    luxuriant said:
    … hoping to stem a downturn it linked partly to slowing iPhone shipments.

    Citation needed. There's nothing of this in Imagination Technologies' press release, which does however say that In the current financial year, both royalty and licensing revenues continue to be in line with the Board’s expectations. While this might just mean that they had expected income from Apple to decrease due to falling iPhone shipments, so it's no surprise if they have, it's just as likely to mean that they did not express a decrease, and that there has been no decrease.
    Not only that, they specifically said that they will reinforce its PowerVR business adding 50 new jobs to the unit.
  • Reply 10 of 28
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    Or they just want to blame Apple for their own mismanagement or to give the employees someone else to hate. Blame shifting at its best.
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 11 of 28
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    Thats a bit strange. Maybe Apple switched to its own internal GPU architecture ...
  • Reply 12 of 28
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,409member
    cnocbui said:
    SpamSandwich said:
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    Don't publicly listed companies have an obligation to inform the market of significant matters that are likely to affect their financial position?
    Sure, subject to contractual guidelines with key stakeholders such as suppliers, employees, retailers, etc. There are lots of ways in which the information on a possible slowdown can be communicated by a public company.
    cnocbui
  • Reply 13 of 28
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,453member
    sog35 said:
    luxuriant said:
    … hoping to stem a downturn it linked partly to slowing iPhone shipments.

    Citation needed. There's nothing of this in Imagination Technologies' press release, which does however say that In the current financial year, both royalty and licensing revenues continue to be in line with the Board’s expectations. While this might just mean that they had expected income from Apple to decrease due to falling iPhone shipments, so it's no surprise if they have, it's just as likely to mean that they did not express a decrease, and that there has been no decrease.
    Do better AppleInsider. Imagination Tech NEVER SAID THE DROP WAS BECAUSE OF IPHONE.
    I wonder how MIPS Technologies is doing under Imagination Technologies ownership. They seem to have a market in embedded products like BD players.
    edited March 2016
  • Reply 14 of 28
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    Really sad that Apple rumor sites are running with this. I don't see any where that anyone from Imagine specifically mentioned lower iPhone shipments. Apple stock actually was up 2% the other day because an analysts predicted stronger than expected iPhone sales for the March quarter.
    nolamacguylostkiwibobschlob
  • Reply 15 of 28
    hammerd2hammerd2 Posts: 50member
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    They are.

    Imagination Technologies said nothing of the sort ! Here is a link to the company release.

    https://imgtec.com/news/press-release/17-march-2016-restructuring-update/

    THEY DID NOT MENTION ANY DOWNTURN AT APPLE.

    This is a lazy reporting of lazy reporting from Yahoo's crappy newsfeed on the iPhone Stocks app.

    nolamacguylostkiwibobschlob
  • Reply 16 of 28
    hammerd2hammerd2 Posts: 50member
    sog35 said:
    SpamSandwich said:
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    Maybe because Apple has a new vendor.

    Apple should put in their vendor contracts that if they disclose information about Apple they would get fined $xxx amount.  Pretty standard stuff.
    They didn't say anything about Apple in their press release.
    nolamacguylostkiwi
  • Reply 17 of 28
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    tmay said:
    sog35 said:
    Do better AppleInsider. Imagination Tech NEVER SAID THE DROP WAS BECAUSE OF IPHONE.
    I wonder how MIPS Technologies is doing under Imagination Technologies ownership. They seem to have a market in embedded products like BD players.
    MIPS is exactly the reason why IMG are layering off. MIPS is doing pants. Most router are switching, or has a roadmap switching to ARM. even Multimedia players etc. Anything that has 30% to 50% same functionalities of a smartphone are switching to ARM.

    I wish IMG could just open up the design, OpenRSIC is basically MIPS.
  • Reply 18 of 28
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,453member
    ksec said:
    tmay said:
    I wonder how MIPS Technologies is doing under Imagination Technologies ownership. They seem to have a market in embedded products like BD players.
    MIPS is exactly the reason why IMG are layering off. MIPS is doing pants. Most router are switching, or has a roadmap switching to ARM. even Multimedia players etc. Anything that has 30% to 50% same functionalities of a smartphone are switching to ARM.

    I wish IMG could just open up the design, OpenRSIC is basically MIPS.
    Thanks,

    I suspected as much.
  • Reply 19 of 28
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    rob53 said:
    SpamSandwich said:
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    I thought they were. I guess nobody is afraid of Tim Cook like they were for Steve Jobs. Under Steve, these people (if they are even real) would have had their "pie holes" reamed out.
    yeah I guess that's why there were no leaks while Jobs was CEO, or websites that published them. oh, wait. 
  • Reply 20 of 28
    galeforcegaleforce Posts: 67member
    sog35 said:
    SpamSandwich said:
    Apple partners should be contractually bound to shut their pie holes.
    Maybe because Apple has a new vendor.

    Apple should put in their vendor contracts that if they disclose information about Apple they would get fined $xxx amount.  Pretty standard stuff.
    Apple don't buy anything from IT, they licence designs. They are manufactured by Samsung and TSMC as part of the SOC
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