Word has reached SemiAccurate that Asus just made a bid for Asrock’s mobo division. The motherboard leader is about to buy the fast growing upstart out before they get too large.

Currently word has it that an offer has been made for Asrock, and Pegatron is essentially fine with the terms. This would take the #1 and #3 mobo makers and combine them, leaving the industry with one massive behemoth, one solid player, and a lot of minnows struggling to make waves. As of now, there is a first tier of Asus and Gigabyte, then Asrock, MSI, and ECS at less than half of that volume, plus a few niche players in the motherboard market.

If this buyout goes through, there would be a singular AsusRock as the first tier, Gigabyte as the second, and a third tier without the pricing leverage to compete. The already unhealthy industry would likely collapse into two players before people realized what happened.

There are a lot of secondary players, suppliers,and related companies both upstream and downstream of this sector. All of them would likely be affected adversely if this goes through, Given the two players involved, Asus and Pegatron, is there anyone with an ability to make a better offer left? Would anyone want to? This one is not finished yet, but it may be soon. The only thing for sure is that it is going to be quite interesting to watch the deal unfold.S|A