INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesApple has revived a licensing relationship with UK-based chipmaker Imagination Technologies.Imagination said it
will allow Apple to access "a wider range of Imagination's intellectual property" in exchange for fees under a new, "multi-year" deal.It
comes about three years after the iPhone maker's decision to break ties disrupted Imagination's business.Shares plunged and the firm was
eventually sold to a Chinese-backed investment firm.In a statement, Imagination said the new deal would replace the "multi-year, multi-use
licence agreement" that the two companies announced back in 2014
Terms were not disclosed.Founded in 1985, Imagination had been hailed as one of a handful of successful home-grown technology companies.But
its survival was in question in 2017, after Apple said it would end the use of Imagination's graphics processing units (GPUs) in favour of
developing the equipment in-house
At the time, the US giant accounted for about half of Imagination's revenues.Months later, Canyon Bridge, a Chinese-backed private equity
graphics processing architecture, describing it as "the fastest GPU" ever released.It was one of the jewels in the crown of the UK
technology scene - but the history of Imagination Technologies is a cautionary tale for any business about the dangers of having all your
eggs in one basket.Being a supplier to Apple was the route to riches in the good times
But when the US tech giant went cool on the relationship, everything began to fall apart.Apple had already started poaching key staff and
then a warning in 2017 that it was going to phase out its use of the UK firm's technology sent the shares tumbling
Soon after, it was sold to the Chinese-linked private equity fund Canyon Bridge for little more than a quarter of that 2012 valuation.Parts
of the business have been sold, the workforce has been halved to 850, and Imagination now has a broader range of customers
And now it has settled its differences with Apple, amid speculation that the Californian giant preferred a deal to a court battle over the
patented Imagination technology that may still be present in the iPhone and other products.But with the much bigger chip designer ARM in the
hands of Japan's Softbank since 2016, and Autonomy sold to HP in a disastrous deal in 2011, the last decade has not been a cheerful period
for anyone hoping to see a UK-owned tech business take on the world.
