S3 Buys Number Nine

S3 has moved to strengthen it relationship with IBM by announcing that it will acquire all assets of Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation. Number Nine is a contract supplier of S3 based products to IBM, and the acquisition will allow S3 to consolidate and simplify its business with IBM. "We expect that our acquisition of Number Nine's assets will enable us to streamline [our] business model and further strengthen our direct relationship with IBM," explained S3 CEO Ken Potashner. S3 plans to merge Number Nine's hardware and software engineering groups into existed S3 teams.