back to article Arm's $66bn sale to Nvidia is off: Deal collapses after world's competition regulators raise concerns

SoftBank Group and Nvidia are terminating the sale of Brit-based chip designer Arm to the US tech firm due to "significant regulatory challenges" amid concerns from the tech industry that a deal would stifle competition. The buy price, initially set at $40bn (cash and Nvidia shares) when first announced in September 2020, has …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    his firm will "continue to support" Arm as a "proud licensee for decades to come."

    And that's all it needed to do.

    I am glad of this decision.

  2. Korev Silver badge
    Coat

    So, should we say that Nvidia is Armless?

    1. Vikingforties
      Coat

      Err, Mostly Armless.

      1. Dave559 Silver badge
        Pint

        Mostly Armless

        "Err, Mostly Armless."

        You should consider yourself quite elite for that delightful ultimately recursive reference!

        (Or perhaps I should say, "There is the theory of the Möbius. A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop.")

      2. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

        So long then...

        1. ForthIsNotDead
          Coat

          > So long then..

          And thanks for all the fish and CHIPS.

          CHIPS!!!!! GEDDIT?

    2. Palm Lodge

      Could be a little riscy

      1. Vikingforties

        It won't be too bad, they've got fingers in many PIs.

  3. elsergiovolador Silver badge
    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Worthless?

      ARM's been well and truly forked!

    2. Alex Stuart

      Re: Worthless?

      That's mad. Hopefully the world continues to wise up to China's game.

      1. heyrick Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: Worthless?

        As long as the tat is cheap, a significant number won't care.

      2. Peter2 Silver badge

        Re: Worthless?

        It's as mad as the USA ending up as the biggest economy in the world via a century worth of increasingly brazen IP theft from Britain. That's historical fact

        China is just doing exactly the same thing to the USA, and chances are that in the long run attempts at stopping China stealing American IP won't be much more successful than British attempts at stopping IP theft by the USA were back when the USA was doing it.

        My prediction is that it'll stop for the same reasons it did with the USA; at the point they run out of things to steal and start coming up with their own ideas from what was stolen. At that point they'll want to stop those ideas being copied.

    3. Tom Chiverton 1

      Re: Worthless?

      Probably shouldn't have sold 51% of the company if they wanted to retain control then

      1. Death Boffin
        Big Brother

        Re: Worthless?

        The CCP requires that at least 51% be held by the Chinese partner, just so those pesky foreigners can't interfere.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Worthless?

          Silly communists. Over here in hyper-efficient free-market capitalist Canada we don't allow any foreign investment in telecoms, airlines, etc

          For unknown reasons we have a local 2 player monopoly in telecoms and airlines and the highest prices in the world

    4. Korev Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Worthless?

      You mean they've taken it out of ARM's way?

      1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Re: Worthless?

        I CCP what you did there...

  4. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
    Joke

    "As the Switzerland of the chip industry..."

    Are you're saying they're cuckoo? Or just that their IP is in IoT cuckoo clocks?

    It's been six or seven years since I last heard a cuckoo. *sigh* I wonder if this spring will bring it's call.

    1. Screepy

      Re cuckoo's - don't get your hopes up. Despite the efforts of some pretty good nature charities we are destroying their nesting sites as fast as we can in the name of leveling up :'(

      I'm assuming you're UK-based - if you're on the continent then you've got a good chance, a fair few of them still manage to evade the wall of guns on the med islands every spring

      1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

        Yeah, I'm UK based. I used to hear them every year as a kid. It's not a remarkable song; just part of the texture of spring and early summer.

        Much of the habitat where I heard it remains unchanged. Although Network Rail did cut down a few trees on the edge.

  5. J.G.Harston Silver badge

    If SoftBank floats ARM I might buy a couple of shares, for old time's sake.

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      +1 (so long as the price isn't astronomic)

      1. Tom 7

        I thought it was seriously undersold when Softbank bought it but with Intel chucking some cash at RISC-V I'm not so sure now.

        I am not a qualified investment advisor I just made the equivalent of 225% annual interest on my last ARM dip.

      2. Mast1

        It won't be that astronomic: you already will have the arm, just need to throw in the leg as well.

        1. adam 40 Silver badge

          Only if you have a nose for a good investment and go with your head, not your heart.

          Go on - give me a thumbs up!

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      They'll want to do it as quickly as possible before interest rate rises deflate the market. And, of course, taking it public is probably just a precursor to a tie up with nVidia at some point in the future.

  6. TJ1
    Stop

    making this the biggest *non*-deal in the semiconductor market

    Corrections brought to you via ARM (Automatic Reframing of Meaning)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Probably floating the US….

    Which then removes a major attraction of using ARM for non US companies.

    I am no expert, but I wouldn’t buy shares if it effectively becomes a US company as I don’t see how alienating a chunk of customers helps you make money.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Typical UK short sighted profiteering

    Should never have been sold in the first place. Can you imagine Germany allowing the sale of VW ?

    1. Woodnag

      UK wouldn't sell off national resources.

      Imagine if UK sold off, say, water rights to a foreign company. Oh.

      1. oiseau
        Stop

        Re: UK wouldn't sell off national resources.

        Imagine if UK sold off, say, water rights ...

        Imagine?

        If you don't stop giving the DHs at No. 10 ideas, they may attempt to do it.

        O.

    2. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

      Didn't Maybot shrill that the sale meant that Britain was "open for business"?

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

        Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

        Didn't Maybot shrill that the sale meant that Britain was "open for business"?

        Closing Down Sale?

        [I knew one company that had a closing down sale for about 11 years, until the building they were in was actually demolished. Then they reopened at another site with a closing down sale. I moved away but for all I know they're still having a closing down sale.]

      2. Vometia has insomnia. Again. Silver badge

        Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

        Yeah. Also less than a week after her "pledge" to stop the flood of important UK companies being sold abroad, which I'd presumed would include valuable tech companies like Arm. But of course she caved the second someone opened their chequebook and said they were interested in buying at a knock-down price. :|

      3. ICL1900-G3

        Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

        I used to think she was the worst PM ever... and then... along came the Clown

        1. Arthur the cat Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

          The problem is that the scale for "worst of" is open ended. You think you must have reached rock bottom and then someone even more mind bogglingly bad comes along.

    3. Lars Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

      "Can you imagine Germany allowing the sale of VW".

      I can sort of see your point, but the size comparison makes it a bit silly as the difference is immense. Less than 10.000 employees against more than 300.000 for instance.

      I could well imagine that Germany sold companies the size of ARM.

      Your point is really about the British and the Germans and not about Britain and Germany.

      1. Tams

        Re: Typical UK short sighted profiteering

        It was big the UK, where we have either let our industries decline or be bought up.

        Companies like BAE Systems are only safe because they are major defence suppliers, and under the current lot I wouldn't even consider them 100% safe. They'd sell their own grandmas.

  9. Binraider Silver badge

    If Nvidia can't buy it, that means realistically nor can AMD, Intel, TSMC or a dozen others.

    Floating it again is an interesting proposition, but I am sure investors will be looking at RISC-V and the long-run potential.

    Milking existing licensees does not smell like a winning proposition and the market is already saturated with ARM gizmos so apart from population growth finding investor upside is tricky. ARM making inroads into server and/or desktop being the only really obvious route for that growth.

    I'm sure some savvy folks could come up with an Amiga 2.0 to occupy the void between Wintel and Apple for a decently priced and high performance machine with a coherent OS and software offering. You know, the sort of thing a vertically integrated outfit like SoftBank could do if it pulled it's finger out.

    I can wish. (Returns to looking at recapped A500's and more fun times with computing).

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      ARM was doing fine as a public company before it was bought by Softbank for a classic public/private/sale flip.

      The market continues to grow and, if it can stay independent, it acts more or less as a licence pool for its licencees. This is less spectacular than other models but has served it and its customers very well over the last twenty years and as long as licence costs don't dominate the BoM there is little to fear from RISC-V, which the company can also participate in.

  10. HereAndGone

    A Deal for Nvidia

    If Softbank is going to take ARM public, Nvidia will find it much cheaper simply to acquire controlling interest of ARM stock vice having to buy the company outright.

    Looks like a Duck,

    Walks like a Duck,

    But cheaper than a Duck while ducking regulatory issues.

    This plan is not quacked up to solve what it pretends to solve and will likely prove most fowl.

  11. EnviableOne

    depends where they list it

    New York - Great for US companies

    London - Vote of confidence in Post Brexit Britain

    Frankfurt - Vote of confidence in Europe (no-confidence in Britain)

    Hong Kong - Bad for the US, Good for china

    Tokyo - Where SoftBank is at, probably the best neutral location.

    but all of them will be competing, and it might end up dual listed

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