10 July, 2017
About a dozen jobs were posted and Imagination's former COO, headhunted by Apple 10 months previously, would be there to welcome new staff through the door.
Apple has now reportedly rented new 22,500 square-foot premises in the centre of St Albans, adjacent to the village of Kings Langley where Imagination is based, increasing fears it could essentially take over the smaller firm by hiring away its core staff.
Imagination, a small company that now makes about half its revenues from royalty fees paid by Apple, in April disclosed that the California company planned to stop payments as early as 2018. This is a serious accusation, as United Kingdom stock market listed companies are expected to issue any share price impacting news to investors immediately. For more on this, read the full Telegraph report here.
Imagination, once Britain's most valuable tech company, put itself up for sale last month after seeing £500m wiped off its value in just one day when it announced the termination of the Apple contract.
Imagination's technology now forms the basis of the graphics chip featuring in every iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Apple gave Imagination notice that it would be designing its own GPU chips in future, and that it expected to achieve this within two years, at which point it would cease licence payments.
It has also accused Apple of breaching its own ethics after challenging the firm's claim that it will be able to design its own chips without paying for access to the British company's intellectual property.
Imagination says that it did not release the news until April because Apple's notification "lacked clarity".
Bezos, the world's second richest man, said past year that his aim was to make Prime so useful that it would be "irresponsible" not to have it.
Imagination has been criticised for the timing of its announcement, since it's under an obligation to inform investors as soon as possible of any information that could affect share prices. It claims it has asked Apple for proof that its designs are original, but the iPhone-maker is yet to provide it. Apple has now said those claims are "inaccurate and misleading".
We're disappointed in their response, which has been inaccurate and misleading'.
