Imagination Tech raises MIPS offer to $100 million

British chip designer Imagination Technologies on Monday agreed to buy MIPS for $100 million after it outbid Ceva Inc for a second time.

British chip designer Imagination Technologies on Monday agreed to buy MIPS for $100 million after it outbid Ceva Inc for a second time.

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Imagination and Ceva have been battling to buy the operating business of MIPS since last month when a $60 million agreed offer from the British company triggered a bidding war.

Imagination's $100 million offer trumps a $90 million bid from Ceva last week.

MIPS was a pioneer of 32-bit and 64-bit processing, and its technology is in blu-ray players, digital televisions and video games consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 2.

The California-based company agreed to sell 498 patents for $350 million to a consortium of technology companies organized by patent holding company Allied Security Trust and led by ARM when it agreed the initial Imagination deal.