According to a recent announcement by the Kings Langley, England-based chip designer Imagination Technologies Group Plc, with a purchase of shares worth 3.14 million pounds, the Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. would be raising its stake in the company to 9.5 percent.

In a regulatory statement, Imagination Technologies said that Apple intends subscribing for 2.2 million new shares at 1.4275 pounds per share. Traders are of the opinion that the shares purchased in the market came from the currently financially-distraught Saudi group Saad.

The Apple move - which comes within days of the news of US chipmaker Intel raising its Imagination Technologies’ stake to a little over 16 percent - has pushed Imagination’s shares 4.25p to 147p.

The one-after-the-other news of increase in their respective Imaginative stake by Intel and Apple has given rise to speculations about the takeover of the UK chip maker. However, Intel and Imagination have denied any such intention by either of the two companies to have raised their stake. 

Rebuffing rumors of a takeover bid, analyst Ian Robertson at Seymour Pierce noted that the Imagination graphics story needs support from hardware and software companies, and said: “We do not expect either Intel or Apple to go beyond 15-20% in the short to medium term and we would be very surprised indeed if they were to attempt to buy Imagination.”