ARM taken over by Japan's SoftBank

[Kilrah]

Duplicate.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/arm-bought-for-32-billion-$-by-japanese-softbank/

[Monkeh]

They are ready for use

Tell me that when Digikey have ten thousand in stock.

People will buy ARM because it's proven, has huge support in software, and a wide variety of hardware vendors. Anyone wanting to butt in on their market now will, maybe, be relevant in 10 years.. if they have silicon right now.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

One of the strengths of ARM *was* that it had no real connections to anybody else. If you decided to use their IP there was no decision "do we support a competitor" involved. That was true at the chip fab level and at the end user level. While SoftBank may be a great parent for ARM (only time will tell), it does lump them in with a bunch of other tech holdings. It's not quite like Qualcomm or IBM buying them, but there is a little of the same flavor.

Bob

[dannyf]

As a long time armh investor, I'm both happy  with the offer and wishing that it doesnt fo through with Softbank.

Im happy that people are realizing armhs potential. And a 40 percent premium is nice to have, especially when my cost basis is practically zero.

On the flip side, I hope other buyers will come along. Armh has a very scaleable product, in iot, phone, tablet, servers, and distributed computing, I am surprised that no Chinese buyer has emerged before Softbank.

With China being a leader in those category, and it's potential to deploy armh products in cars (thus creating a credible competitor to renasas), the mkt is endless.

Not to mention the strategic risk of letting the Japanese to have both arm and renansas.

With that, I think the number Softbank put on armh grossly undervalued the firm.

I would easily put a 50bn figure on that, and if they can get into even just the domestic Chinese car mkt, easily a 100bn company.

[kaz911]

Well - my wife works for SoftBank and they have a plan. Masa-San (The CEO/founder/owner) is the Japanese version of Bill Gates - just more down to earth. He actually has an engineering background and is very smart and down to earth. I think he feels best with his sleeves rolled up ready to solve problems.

This makes me smile
The last-but-one Nokia CEO (don't remember his name) also had an engineering background (RF AFAIK) which didn't stop him from running the company into the ground.
It would be a bit pity to see if a pattern "buy a company -> mess with it -> run it down -> sell to microsoft or whoever" applies to ARM as well.

Masa-San is the owner/founder and CEO. And he is very smart. He almost went bankrupt with SoftBank during one of the market bounces  - but managed to get through the fire - and rebuild SoftBank. SoftBank used to own COMDEX Exhibitions in the US where I met him (and sold it before COMDEX collapsed)  He is very hands on with the companies he invests in and works very hard. He started in 1981 and has run the company since then. So he is not the overnight hired CEO in temporary residence.

[DmitryL]

Masa-San is the owner/founder and CEO. And he is very smart. He almost went bankrupt with SoftBank during one of the market bounces  - but managed to get through the fire - and rebuild SoftBank. SoftBank used to own COMDEX Exhibitions in the US where I met him (and sold it before COMDEX collapsed)  He is very hands on with the companies he invests in and works very hard. He started in 1981 and has run the company since then. So he is not the overnight hired CEO in temporary residence.

Ok. I will tell my friends from ARM that they are in a good hands...

[Kjelt]

And he is very smart. He almost went bankrupt with SoftBank during one of the market bounces.

uuhhhhh

[PChi]

I'm not convinced that the numbers stack up. To cover 32 billion requires selling a hell of a lot of licences at a few cents each.

[josem]

I'm not convinced that the numbers stack up. To cover 32 billion requires selling a hell of a lot of licences at a few cents each.

Doesn't sound too hard:

"By 2017 ARM expects its customers to be shipping roughly 41 billion chips that use ARM IP every year."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7112/the-arm-diaries-part-1-how-arms-business-model-works/

[photon]

That kind of money currupts. They made an offer ARM couldn't refuse. It will be interesting to see where ARM is in 10 years.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330147

[free_electron]

arm should have given the finger ...

[EEVblog]

http://www.cringely.com/2016/07/18/softbank-paying-32-billion-arm-holdings/

[EEVblog]

arm should have given the finger ...

They did, until the number went up to $32B

[EEVblog]

I'm not convinced that the numbers stack up. To cover 32 billion requires selling a hell of a lot of licences at a few cents each.

He'll change the way they do business.

[EEVblog]

https://www.hottopics.ht/stories/how-to/masayoshi-son-ceo-lost-70bn-in-day-before-conquering-world/

[RGB255_0_0]

arm should have given the finger ...

They did, until the number went up to $32B

After Brexit crashed the pound that $32bn made much more sense.

If all the companies that could have bought ARM, it's ended up being in the hands of a conglomerate.

32bn looks like a big number until you compare it to Facebook, Google and others of similar ilk.

Could well end up in a bidding war.

Sucks that this is our last big tech company losing its independence.

[all_repair]

I'm not convinced that the numbers stack up. To cover 32 billion requires selling a hell of a lot of licences at a few cents each.

He'll change the way they do business.

Few factors here.  Timing is right because of Brexit effect of the currencies.  And it is not about ARM,  it is about phone OS: Android and ApplePhoneOS.  It is about the future of most computing which is the mobile computing, and it is about the future of most online activities.  The market for smart phones for the rest of the world still has a lot of rooms to grow.  People keep changing phone and want to keep changing phone.

[photon]

Masayoshi Son seems to have a pair.

[kalleboo]

After Brexit crashed the pound that $32bn made much more sense.

And remember not only did the Sterling drop, the Yen shot up as well (since it's the safe-haven currency in Asia in times of turbulence, to Abe's chagrin)

edit: Although Brexit boosted the share price of ARM making it more expensive than pre-Brexit, even in Yen terms https://twitter.com/jamestitcomb/status/754966707769315333

[kaz911]

arm should have given the finger ...

They did, until the number went up to $32B

no they did not - there was one number presented and it has not changed. And I do not think ARM will change their business model apart from expanding their product offering. I think SoftBank will request less dividends than ARM has paid out - so the ARM business can grow.  And deal did not have anything to do with Brexit. Planning started way before Brexit.

[BravoV]

Hmm ... nice to know my pocket grows tad thicker, reference -> My ARMH 

[kaz911]

Sucks that this is our last big tech company losing its independence.

Being a public traded company is absolutely not independence I think being part of SoftBank is a lot more independent than working with 1000's of shareholders and institutional investors constant pressure for higher margins and dividends.

So ARM lost their independence when they went public.

[nctnico]

Hmm ... nice to know my pocket grows tad thicker, reference -> My ARMH 

Now show the shares you bought which didn't perform! You always see people bragging about their top stocks but how about the losses?

[Fred27]

I sold £10k of ARM shares a few months ago. I made a reasonable amount at the time, so not complaining.

[BravoV]

Hmm ... nice to know my pocket grows tad thicker, reference -> My ARMH 

Now show the shares you bought which didn't perform! You always see people bragging about their top stocks but how about the losses?

Where is the fun in "bragging" then ? 

C'mon nctnico, you're becoming grumpier.