One of Britain’s biggest chip firms has been put up for sale as its controversial Chinese owners seek an exit from the business.
Hertfordshire-based Imagination Technologies, which counts Apple among its biggest customers, is understood to have already received several expressions of interest after its owners, Chinese-backed Canyon Bridge, are thought to have instructed advisers Lazard to find a buyer.
Imagination Technologies, which has in the past designed chips for the iPhone, was removed from the London Stock Exchange in 2017 after Canyon Bridge acquired it for £550m — a figure the current owners hope to surpass in any eventual sale. Apple and Intel were among the firm’s biggest shareholders back when it was a listed company.
Imagination’s owners have courted controversy in the past, after an employment tribunal found that its former CEO, Ron Black, was unfairly dismissed after raising concerns about the company’s plans to move operations to China….
