Motherboard makers MSI and Gigabyte have denied claims they've been talking about a merger - even though, by their own admission, they have discussed the possibility more than once.

A report, published by Chinese-language media this week, alleged the two companies were talking about getting together, a process begun five years ago by senior MSI staffer Henry Lu, DigiTimes reports.

Lu has since said he was misquoted, but admitted that the two firms did discuss merging in 2001. After those talks proved unfruitful, discussions between MSI and Gigabyte have taken place, but only on a casual basis, Gigabyte chairman Dandy Yeh told the Taiwanese news site. Again, nothing had come of them, he said.

Interest in motherboard-maker mergers is strong following the sale of Abit's mobo division to Universal Scientific Industrial, and Elitegroup's move to partner with Tatung. Last week, Universal renamed its acquisition Universal Abit. ®