Kind of sounds like a stupid move an anodizer we use for metal made about 8 months back. They decided to impose an upcharge that's tied to what they decide as being a "minimum requirement" for what goes into their tanks for anodizing.
Customers that don't have large orders of metal to have anodized are getting hit with massive upcharge costs, so those customers have been leaving this anodizer in droves and using other anodizers in the area to do the work. Now this anodizer is sitting around and twiddling their thumbs due to business having dropped off over 50%.
The idea was that they had a lot of customers that have small orders and they wanted to make more money off them by applying a minimum requirement charge so they're not just running small batches in their tanks. Well, this has horribly backfired on them. Having now lost so much business, I hear the anodizer is now entertaining the idea of removing the minimum requirement upcharge......but, it might be too little too late. With so many customers having moved their orders to other anodizers, they may never seen a solid return in business.
This decision by ARM may just bite them in the ass, but I guess we wait and see.
Similar story: Buddy of mine worked for trucking company A. Local trucking company A was a major supplier for a nearby Hyundai factory. They had exclusive control over all deliveries to this facility, and as part of that they had to guarantee all deliveries within 12 hours and 24/7 service. It was very profitable, and company A made bank for years. Large local trucking company B was always jealous over A's control. A made nearly as much profit despite being only 1/4th the size. When A's owner retired, B put in an offer for the business so good he couldnt refuse. B assumed that with the hyundai contract they could make that money back within 10 years.
Well, there was a very good reason A had that contract. The old owner had once worked for B, and B couldnt manage the factory well. Deliveries were hours or days late, they couldnt always deliver on weekends, ece. The owner left and founded A specifically so he could offer his contact at hyundai a guarantee of service, which of course carried a much higher price tag. Once B bought A, they went right back to their old ways, not fulfilling their hourly commitment. This backfired, however, as part of A's contract included stiff penalties should they be late or miss a shipment. B found this out the hard way when after a week, instead of receiving a big fat check, they received a bill for tens of thousands of dollars. B panicked, realizing that these fees would drive then bankrupt, so they started reassigning drivers to the hyundai factory. That worked, except now all their OTHER customers started not getting shipments on time, or at all.
So after 18 months, B had lost the majority of their old contracts. They had spent millions only to make no more revenue then A had been making. To top it off, they still couldnt deliver to hyundai like A could, so when the contract expired Hyundai went with another company rather then re sign with B. B was left holding an empty bag, had to lay off most of their drivers and now clings to life with a mere fraction of their former business.
The decision to buy A and force B's work ethic on their customer utterly blew up in B's face. Now I'm not saying ARM will fail so quickly, but rather that if they force a single major business partner to move to RISC V, the rest may soon follow. Much like B's customer base.
