Intel Corp. on Thursday announced that it has acquired additional shares of Imagination Technologies, a designer of graphics processing technologies. Even though the company is now the second largest shareholder of Imagination, the world’s largest chipmaker said that it had no plans to propose an acquisition.

Intel on Thursday acquired a further 25 million shares in Imagination Technologies Group through its wholly owned subsidiary Intel Capital Corp. As a result, Intel now owns 31 970 422 shares in Imagination Technologies, which represents 13.99% of Imagination Technologies Group plc's total issued voting rights (the stake is presently valued at $49.1). Previously Intel bought shares of ImgTec in December, 2008. The purchase makes Intel Imagination’s second biggest shareholder, behind Saudi Arabia’s Saad Group, according to Bloomberg data.

“Intel Corporation has acquired these additional shares for strategic reasons. Whilst Intel Corporation will continue to consider its options in relation to its holding in Imagination Technologies Group plc, […], it confirms that it has no current intention to make an offer for Imagination Technologies Group,” a statement by Intel with the London Stock Exchange reads.

Intel has already licensed several generations of Imagination Technologies’ graphics and video IP cores for deployment in Intel's PC, mobile computing and consumer architectures.

Intel is known for acquiring various intellectual property and considering that multimedia capabilities of mobile devices are gaining importance, it would make quite a lot of sense for Intel to take over one of the leading developers on the market. Still, the company said that it “values its continued relationship with Imagination and the use of Imagination's technologies by an industry-wide customer base”.

Tags: Intel, Imagination Technologies, PowerVR