Original title:applesNew patent licensing agreement reached with British graphics chip manufacturer Imagination

[TechWeb] On January 2, according to foreign media reports, Apple announced in 2017 that it would develop its own graphics processor to reduce its dependence on British supplier Imagination. Since then, the two companies have also experienced some discomfort, but Apple has now reached a new patent licensing agreement with Imagination.

The news that Apple and Imagination have reached a new patent licensing agreement was announced by Imagination on its official website today.

According to information from Imagination's official website, they have signed a new agreement with Apple to replace the multi-year, multi-purpose patent license agreement signed on February 6, 2014. Under the new multi-year patent license agreement, Apple has the right to use a large number of Imagination technologies with intellectual property rights. In exchange, Apple needs to pay Imagination a patent license fee.

Imagination is headquartered in the UK and has extensive intellectual property rights in chips and software. Its technologies in graphics, computing, vision and artificial intelligence, and connectivity have improved the energy efficiency, performance and scope of use of the product, and has better safety, speeded up time to market, and reduced the overall cost of the product.

Imagination was also a former provider of graphics processing technology for Apple, but in April 2017, Apple announced that it had developed its own graphics processor technology to reduce its reliance on Imagination technology over the next two years.

Since Apple was a major customer of Imagination, more than half of its revenue came from Apple at the time. The news that it was abandoned by Apple also caused its stock price to drop by nearly 70%, and revenue was also in trouble.

Less than three months after being abandoned by Apple, Imagination, with uncertain future prospects, began to seek sales. In September 2017, it was announced that it had reached an agreement with CBFI Investment Limited, a subsidiary of the equity investment fund Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, to sell it to the latter for 550 million pounds (about 4.9 billion yuan). The related acquisition transaction was completed in November 2017.