EU Commission may extend antitrust probe into Nvidia's $54bn merger with Arm

Nvidia’s $54 billion bid to takeover British chip designer Arm is reportedly facing more hurdles than expected as the EU Commission extends its antitrust investigation of the deal. Both companies had expected authorities to scrutinize the merger after Nvidia officially submitted its plans to acquire Arm to the EU, last month. …

[JohnMurray]

No problem, at least within the UK...

...just make a large donation to the CONservative party

[idiot taxpayer here again]

Re: No problem, at least within the UK...

Er, the government has opened an investigation into the proposed deal.

But I am wondering how Arm can be worth so much? It's not like Arm make billions in profit every quarter. Hell, SoftBank themselves were only hoping 24 Billion. Far be it for me to cast aspersions, but maybe the American government is in on it somewhere. After all, after what they have done to Huawei in the name of protectionism, imagine what they could do if they could say that all Arm technology belongs to America.

Coincidentally, last time I looked, Arm has largely ignored the American diktat to not supply China which won't have gone down well. Plus they also have a facility over there. Which they seem to be having problems with.

I suppose time will tell

[Youngone]

Re: No problem, at least within the UK...

You make some very good points.

[Lusty]

British!

"The British chip biz"

Not really sure how this qualifies as a British business at this point.

[werdsmith]

Re: British!

Because it has its HQ at Fulbourn Road, Cambridge, England.

Developing and licensing electronics technology and owning shares are two different disciplines.

[Doctor Syntax]

Parsing problem

"Developing and licensing electronics technology and owning shares are two different disciplines."

Where do you put the brackets?

[Trollslayer]

Re: British!

https://www.arm.com/company/offices

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: British!

By that logic a lot of great British businesses are Bahamian or Virginal

[Lars]

Re: British!

I would agree but it can get a bit complicated.

Looking at Arm on Wikipedia we find this:

Arm Holdings, a multinational company that designs the ARM computer processors

and

Arm Ltd. (stylized as arm) is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England.

But looking for the HQ for Airbus you find this:

Headquarters

Leiden, Netherlands (Headquarters)

Blagnac, Greater Toulouse, France (Main Office)

Madrid, Spain (International Office)

Hamburg, Germany (Operations Office)

I suppose you will not call it a Dutch company due to the HQ.

[werdsmith]

Re: British!

You can’t tell me that Guinness is British can you ? It is clearly and obviously an Irish brewer, though it is owned by Diageo of Park Royal, London, nobody is going to accept that it’s anything but Irish.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: British!

Wait till they find out that Rolls Royce and Bentley are German - splutters into Daily Telegraph

[Lusty]

Re: British!

Yes, I'm sure all of their development happens in that one office, they just have the other global offices to show off.

If the business is owned elsewhere, what is the advantage to Britain in claiming it as our own? They certainly take UK subsidies for R&D, do they pay much UK tax? What percentage of employees are UK based?

[elsergiovolador]

Check mate

It could go like this:

1. The anti-trust investigation is a code word for negotiating under the table payment

2. NVidia buys ARM

3. China annexes Taiwan

4. China takes ownership of ARM

5. All IP gets shipped to Shenzen and UK offices close

6. Gets renamed to 喂食的手

7. Western companies will no longer be able to license the IP

But that's just my imagination.

[Citizen of Nowhere]

Re: Check mate

Not sure how China annexing Taiwan gives them the ability to take control of ARM or do anything with ARM IP. NVidia is a US corporation.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Check mate

China, Taiwan and Nvidia are all foreign and therefore are all the same

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Check mate

The NVidia CEO is Taiwanese, so when Taiwan becomes part of China they will be subject of their security law, which essentially says that any Chinese citizen must do what security agencies tells them to do (or simply put what the party wants). If they say give us an arm, they will have to do it...

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Check mate

So SpaceX has to do whatever President Zuma says ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Check mate

Beer for you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Check mate

But that's just my fevered imagination.

FTFY

[adam 40]

Re: Check mate

The worrying this is China annexes Taiwan _because_ NVidia buys ARM.

It would be the cherry on the cake!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Check mate

Or China annexes Fulbourn because NVidia doesn't

- I for one welcome our oriental overlords to the Fens

[werdsmith]

Re: Check mate

I doubt there’s anything in Fulbourn to interest the Chinese. There’s a Chinese takeaway called Kirin, but I suspect that China has plenty of its own food. They might like the pub.

[Youngone]

Re: Check mate

China annexes Taiwan

That's the bit that won't happen.

The "China is going to annex Taiwan" stuff I keep reading on the internet sounds like America's regular search for a new enemy to point at now that their most recent wars are winding down.

I seem to remember the constant existential dread from the US military when the Berlin Wall came down and they lost the Soviet Union. Those were scary times for the Military Industrial Complex.

[steviebuk]

Re: Check mate

I thought the same. I still feel China are banging on about it like a bully but not planning to go ahead. Mainly because they realise their economy exists because of the rest of the world and selling shit on Amazon. Take that away and they'll end up tanking and loosing tons of money.

So much is made in China. Take for example the quality model maker Sideshow Collectibles. They looked amazing when I saw them on Tested (on YouTube with Adam Savage from mythbusters. A maker, his one day builds are a must watch) but then you look into it and they are pretty much made in China. They make the first mold in the US which we see in all their marketing bollocks. Then they ship it to China for the factories and painters their to do the runs. So no longer special yet still a mass markup price.

Small example but hopefully makes my point.

[Dinanziame]

I should damn will hope so

To me, it's a no-brainer that this should be stopped. No concessions, no conditions, no promises of Nvidia can be trusted. It's a mystery to me why in the current climate it is even considered to allow the merger.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I should damn will hope so

But it's fine for it to be owned by the Saudis ?

[TVU]

Re: I should damn will hope so

"To me, it's a no-brainer that this should be stopped"

^ I fully agree with this. This is too much concentration of influence and any of Nvidia, Intel and AMD should be banned from acquiring ARM.

In addition, Nvidia's promises cannot be trusted at all. For example, ARM will eventually be treated just the same way as Icera was if this takeover is allowed to proceed.

[Geez Money]

Re: I should damn will hope so

"I've never trusted nVidia, and I never will. I can never forgive Jensen for the death of my card"

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: I should damn will hope so

I don't think Jensen exists - I think they faked him in CGI

[Snowy]

They have seen

The bung the UK is getting and are looking for some?