Altera, a company owned by Intel, could sell a minority stake to the buyout firms Silver Lake and Bain Capital, sources have told Reuters. They said that Intel launched a stake sale process for Altera in recent weeks and that the talks are in an early stage and are expected to get potential bids in the coming weeks.
According to the report, the private equity firm Francisco Partners could also be among the bidders. The sources reported this information to Reuters under the condition of anonymity as the matter is confidential.
Intel is allegedly trying to earn back on Altera as much as it paid for the business in 2015. It"s unknown right now how much of Intel"s stake will be sold, but the sources said any deal will be worth at least a few billion dollars.
It is not a secret that Intel is trying to sell a stake in Altera. In fact, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said:
"We remain focused on selling a stake in Altera on a path to its IPO in the coming years. To that end, we have begun discussions with potential investors and expect to conclude in early 2025."
Intel is currently trying to find options to reduce its overall costs by selling off parts of its business that it cannot fund from its now-reduced profits. Its difficulties are reflected in its stock price, which is sitting at $22.52 per share, down from around $68 in 2021.
While Intel is now catching up on artificial intelligence, it missed the initial benefits when OpenAI decided to go with Nvidia hardware to power its popular AI solution, ChatGPT.
Source: Reuters