Wave Computing, MIPS emerge from bankruptcy March 02, 2021 // By Peter Clarke
Processor IP company Wave Computing Inc. and its subsidiaries, including MIPS Technology, have emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The restructured business will be known as MIPS and focus on the RISC-based processor architectures originally developed by MIPS and extensively licensed out. MIPS is developing an eighth-generation architecture based on the open-source RISC-V processor standard.
Under a plan approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California the majority of creditors will receive a meaningful recovery of debts owed.
Tallwood Ventures won a bankruptcy auction of Wave Computing assets held in December 2020 with a restructuring bid valued at $61 million. Tallwood will take majority ownership of the reorganized company. Sanjai Kohli will continue to lead MIPS as CEO.
MIPS out of bankruptcy
MIPS is now developing an 8th generation architecture, based on RISC-V.
MIPS has suffered a chequered history since being bought by Imagination in 2013.
In 2017, China-backed Canyon Bridge bought Imagination and the US government insisted that MIPS must not go with Imagination to Canyon Bridge so MIPS was sold to Diosdado Banatao who made his first fortunes at Chips and Technologies and S3.
Banatao, by then a VC having founded Tallwood Venture Capital, switched the ownership of MIPS between various of his family-owned companies before selling it to Wave Computing, in which Tallwood was a major shareholder.