Softbank Acquires ARM for $32 Billion

[R-T-B]

This acquisition won't change much from a tech perspective. The money for licensed ARM cores will just go to Japan instead of Britain...

 

[Parn]

The only things we have left now in the country are financial firms run by those greedy bankers. Sad....

 

[$ReaPeR$]

Anyone who owned stocks in ARM before this, who else? Stocks jumped $19 bucks, a bit shy of doubling your money.

thats the superficial aspect.

The Japanese. After a big slump over the past couple of decades, Japanese conglomerates are buying up all of the world's "cutting-edge" companies which will matter in this century (eg: acquisition of Westinghouse, which makes nuclear reactors, and is close to developing a Thorium reactor).

thank you bta for clearing that up, maybe the Japanese want to use ARM for their robotics industry, or maybe they want to be able to have an answer to the Chinese development of processors.

 

[Caring1]

Being intellectual property only, it makes it perfect to sell off and retain or lease copywrites.

thats the superficial aspect.

thank you bta for clearing that up, maybe the Japanese want to use ARM for their robotics industry

To power up their giant robots in case Godzilla returns

 

[$ReaPeR$]

Being intellectual property only, it makes it perfect to sell off and retain or lease copywrites.

To power up their giant robots in case Godzilla returns

LOL that was my thought.. the robots being powered by thorium reactors..

 

[Aquinus]

thank you bta for clearing that up, maybe the Japanese want to use ARM for their robotics industry, or maybe they want to be able to have an answer to the Chinese development of processors.

I think ownership of the IP is far more important because of the unique relationship between ARM and the companies that buys licencing and for the manufacturers that produce the chips due to the royalties they pay for using the ARM architecture. Simply put, it's the gift that keeps on giving so long as Softbank doesn't just milk ARM for money and actually continues R&D at the same rate. The last thing we need to do right now is give Intel and x86 more leverage should ARM's development slow down as a result.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I think ownership of the IP is far more important because of the unique relationship between ARM and the companies that buys licencing and for the manufacturers that produce the chips due to the royalties they pay for using the ARM architecture. Simply put, it's the gift that keeps on giving so long as Softbank doesn't just milk ARM for money and actually continues R&D at the same rate. The last thing we need to do right now is give Intel and x86 more leverage should ARM's development slow down as a result.

Knowing how Softbank is doing business in Japan, I would say that they will start by doubling or tripling the licensing cost, put some stupid and useless conditions to the licensed parties, and usually will try to milk the ARM as much as possible. R&D is an utopia for Softbank trust me.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

I think ownership of the IP is far more important because of the unique relationship between ARM and the companies that buys licencing and for the manufacturers that produce the chips due to the royalties they pay for using the ARM architecture. Simply put, it's the gift that keeps on giving so long as Softbank doesn't just milk ARM for money and actually continues R&D at the same rate. The last thing we need to do right now is give Intel and x86 more leverage should ARM's development slow down as a result.

if thats the case then more power to them. intel needs as much competition as possible.

Knowing how Softbank is doing business in Japan, I would say that they will start by doubling or tripling the licensing cost, put some stupid and useless conditions to the licensed parties, and usually will try to milk the ARM as much as possible. R&D is an utopia for Softbank trust me.

if thats the case then.. shit.. :/

 

[petedread]

Sad day indeed. Boards, shareholders pfft. At least they are being well compensated

 

[Aquinus]

Sad day indeed. Boards, shareholders pfft. At least they are being well compensated

The article says nothing about the shareholders voting to do it. The article merely said:

Softbank's bid of $32 billion is a 43 percent premium over ARM's current valuation of $22.3 billion, and the Cambridge-based firm will recommend its shareholders to approve of its acquisition.

Maybe they're already for it and approval is merely a formality?

Edit: Not to make this about politics again but, the decreasing value of the pound versus the yen might have something to do with it. It has been looking that way for the last year and it kind of accelerated after leaving the EU. The high bid might be a way of saying, "Here is your chance to jump ship after the fact."

 

[Dragonsmonk]

Does anyone know if Softbank already own a fab company?

 

[Prima.Vera]

Does anyone know if Softbank already own a fab company?

They don't. But then again, ARM didn't have either...

 

[Nobody99]

Here is what SoftBank should do: set insanely high prices or stop selling the rights for some time till the shares of smartphone and other companies start losing price and then buy the shares of those companies and then start licensing again and when the prices of shares are back on normal level they should sell off the shares and make a big profit.

 

[R-T-B]

Here is what SoftBank should do: set insanely high prices or stop selling the rights for some time till the shares of smartphone and other companies start losing price and then buy the shares of those companies and then start licensing again and when the prices of shares are back on normal level they should sell off the shares and make a big profit.

They can't or everyone would just go MIPS (MIPS has been supported in Android for some time, and is easy portin' for IOS)

 

[Prima.Vera]

They can't or everyone would just go MIPS (MIPS has been supported in Android for some time, and is easy porting for IOS)

I would laugh my arse if they are going to pull another couple of billions to buy yet another British company who owns MIPS, Imagination Tech. ))

 

[Nobody99]

I would laugh my arse if they are going to pull another couple of billions to buy yet another British company who owns MIPS, Imagination Tech. ))

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IMG.L?ltr=1
They should since their market cap is only 572.59 million $.