IMG Imagination Technologies Group

By Rory Gallivan

LONDON--Shares in Imagination Technologies Group PLC (IMG.LN) plunged Monday after it said major customer Apple Inc. (AAPL) planned to stop using the U.K. semiconductor company's graphics technology in its new devices.

Imagination said in a stock-exchange announcement that Apple would stop using its intellectual property in new products in 15 months to two years and would instead develop its own graphics technology.

Shares in Imagination dropped by 60.3% to 107 pence in morning trading, giving Imagination a valuation of 300 million pounds ($375 million).

Imagination said license fees and royalties from Apple totaled GBP60.7 million in the fiscal year ended April 30, 2016, without specifying how much of this was for graphics technology. Total revenue for the year was GBP120 million.

Imagination designs technology for graphics processing units and for central processing units, which power devices' more general functions, such as storing data.

Imagination, whose technology is used in Apple iPhones and other devices, said it would be "extremely challenging" for Apple to develop its own new graphics technology without infringing on Imagination's patents.

The companies are in talks about commercial arrangements, Imagination said.

Apple declined to comment.

Apple, which has an 8.5% stake in Imagination, according to the company's last annual report, last year confirmed that it had held talks about buying Imagination but decided not to make an offer.

Imagination is the largest remaining semiconductor designer on the London Stock Exchange after its much bigger rival, ARM Holdings, agreed to be bought by Japanese internet and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. for $32 billion last year.

Write to Rory Gallivan at rory.gallivan@wsj.com<mailto:rory.gallivan@wsj.com>; Twitter: @RoryGallivan

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2017 07:12 ET (11:12 GMT)

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