AMD picks up SeaMicro for $334m in cloud computing datacentre push

First products due later this year

AMD has announced it will acquire microserver firm SeaMicro for $334m, as it expands its portfolio into the datacentre market for cloud computing services.

The firm said the deal would enable it to provide server technology to OEM customers running cloud-based datacentres, by using SeaMicro's services to ensure it could meet the demand for new workloads such as video, search and dynamic web content from web users.

Chief executive of AMD, Rory Read, said the deal the two firm's technologies would complement one another and allow AMD to grow in the datacentre market.

"By acquiring SeaMicro, we are accelerating AMD's transformation into an agile, disruptive innovator capable of staking a datacenter leadership position," he said.

"SeaMicro is a pioneer in low-power server technology. The combination of AMD's processing capabilities, SeaMicro's system and fabric technology, and our approach positions AMD with a differentiated position to attack the fastest growing segment of the server market."

The firm already has plans for it how it intends to link the two firms' technologies together, with AMD confirming the first AMD Opteron processor-based system using both its and SeaMicro technology will be made available in the second half of 2012.

SeaMicro chief executive Andrew Feldman said the deal underlined the growing importance of cloud computing to the server market.

"Cloud computing has brought a sea change to the datacentre, dramatically altering the economics of compute by changing the workload and optimal characteristics of a server," he said.

"By becoming a part of AMD, we will have access to new markets, resources, technology, and scale that will provide us with the opportunity to work tightly with our OEM partners as we fundamentally change the server market."