Oracle Prefers Its Chip Companies Fabless

At an analyst event earlier this month, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison mentioned he was interested in acquiring a chip company, sparking speculation Oracle might buy ARM or AMD (AMD). Ellison reiterated that interest during Oracle’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, but with some additional and intriguing elaboration.

“My point really was that we are interested in buying intellectual property of all kinds,” Ellison said. “We are an IP creator and IP buyer, as opposed to trying to expand our business by buying a lot of services companies….So insofar as semiconductors represent intellectual property, we would be interested in certain semiconductor companies. Most of our acquisitions and the bulk of our strategy are in creating and acquiring intellectual property, including chips.”

In other words, if Oracle (ORCL) is eyeing a chip company as a potential acquisition, it’s likely a fabless one. NetLogic Microsystems (NETL), for example, which has been bandied about as a Oracle takeover target in the past. Or Mellanox (MLNX), whose technology Oracle already uses.