Apple supplier Dialog Semiconductor lost up to 19 percent of its stock value by simply mentioning the possibility that Apple could begin designing its own power-management chips, Reuters reports.
CEO Jalal Bagherli said there was no risk to existing supply deals for 2018 and that the company was already in the process of working with Apple on “2019-type products” that could lead to new contracts by March, but investors became panicked by his admission that, “Apple has the resources and capability to internally design a PMIC and could potentially do so in the next few years.” Apple accounts for more than half of Dialog’s revenue, and the company has proved that it can be devastating for a supplier to lose its Apple deals.
Apple severing ties with Imagination Technologies essentially cut that company’s revenue in half, and has led Imagination’s CEO to float the possibility of legal action if Apple’s new graphics chips infringe on his company’s patents.
