Late last week, rumors that Nvidia would acquire rival graphics chipmaker 3dfx (and later ATi) quickly circulated the Internet after speculation by a BusinessWeek article. MacWeek contacted Bubba Wolford, 3dfx's senior PR specialist, to set the story straight. Here is a clip from the article:

"The rumors are not true," said 3dfx senior public relations specialist Bubba Wolford. "No one from Nvidia is speaking to us." To underline his point, he added: "3dfx has no interest in being bought out, and no one here is interested in working for Nvidia."

Wolford told MacWEEK that no one from Business Week called 3dfx to verify the story.

The Business Week story suggested that 3dfx, with a market capitalization of only $120 million, would be an attractive target for three reasons: Nvidia could remove a competitor; gain chip technologies that 3dfx obtained as part of its March 2000 acquisition of GigaPixel; and settle a patent lawsuit in which 3dfx recently won a favorable ruling. Nvidia's market capitalization is $4 billion.

MacWeek: 3dfx: "We're Not For Sale"

BusinessWeek: 3dfx: "A Potential Home Run"

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