LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - Apple said on Tuesdayit had talked about buying its supplier British graphics chipdesigner Imagination Technologies, but did not plan tomake an offer at the moment.
Shares in Imagination, which counts Applie amongst its topshareholders and whose technology is used in Apple devicesincluding the iPhone and iPad, jumped earlier on Tuesday afterwebsite Ars Technica UK said Apple was in talks to buy thecompany.
"From time to time, Apple talks with companies aboutpotential acquisitions," the U.S. company said in subsequent astatement.
"We had some discussions with Imagination, but we do notplan to make an offer for the company at this time."
Imagination has struggled to reduce its reliance on Appleand last month announced the departure of veteran chiefexecutive Hossein Yassaie after 18 years in the job, along witha profit warning and restructuring plan.
Its shares, which have slumped from a high of 705 pencenearly four years ago, were up 5.7 percent at 195.50 pence at1625 GMT on Tuesday, valuing the company at 528 million pounds($750 million).
Earlier in the day the shares had jumped more than 20percent on the report of interest from Apple, which holds 8.4percent of the stock, according to Thomson Reuters data. ($1 = 0.7034 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
