Cloudera buys back $ 314 million in stake from Intel. What this means for cloud inventory.

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Late Wednesday

Cloudera

said he bought back all the stake

Intel

acquired the software company for $ 314 million, probably recording a substantial paper loss for the chip giant in its investment.

Cloudera shares (ticker: CLDR) advanced 1.1% in the extended session, adding up to a $ 15 close with a 2.5% gain in the regular session. Intel (INTC) shares rose 0.1% on the floor after closing the regular session with a 0.9% rise to $ 46.57.

Intel invested $ 742 million several years ago, partly because the chip giant allegedly wanted to have a say in the direction of big data software, such as the products that Cloudera makes. In Wednesday’s announcement, Cloudera said the repurchase would not affect existing business partnerships with Intel, and that it was paying $ 12.05 each for about 26 million shares.

The investment appears to have generated a loss of about $ 400 million for Intel, but it is not clear whether Intel bought its stake in the hope of an unexpected profit. When Intel initially bought the shares, it paid twice as much for Cloudera’s shares as another group of investors paid weeks earlier. At the time, then under the leadership of Brian Kzranich, Intel allegedly intended to wipe out potential Cloudera buyers, scaring them off with a $ 4.1 billion valuation.

Intel paid $ 30.92 for 11.99 million shares, costing the company about 5% of its cash and short-term investments at the time. The price was more than double the $ 15 share price that Cloudera would eventually go public in 2017.

Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it is possible that the decision to undo Cloudera’s participation is part of a plan to get rid of the company’s non-core assets and acquire smaller companies that will strengthen their efforts in areas such as artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, Intel sold its memory business to South Korea

SK Hynix

for $ 9 billion. In late 2019, Intel bought Habana Labs, an Israeli-based AI chip maker for $ 2 billion. And in July 2019, Intel said it was selling its smartphone modems business to

Apple

(AAPL). Apple has started building its own cellular modems for its future iPhones, according to a December report.

Write to Max A. Cherney at [email protected]