back to article UK govt refuses to give up on scoring Arm dual-listing for London

The British government is preparing a final campaign of flattery to persuade Arm parent Softbank to opt for a dual New York and London Stock Exchange (LSE) listing when the chip designer's shares are floated later this year. To seal the deal, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are leading the efforts and …

  1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    NY for liquidity not valuation

    largely because businesses tend to have higher valuation when they float there…

    Given how much stuff is automated, fees and valuations will be similar whichever exchange is chosen. The NYSE and NASDAQ have significantly more liquidity, which makes future operations in the capital markets easier.

    1. pimppetgaeghsr

      Re: NY for liquidity not valuation

      Making it easier for Softbank to dump and run and have some shady organisation dump their holdings for them over time?

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: NY for liquidity not valuation

        The window for Softbank closed when the nVidia deal fell through. Even so, it looks like they'll make a profit on an IPO, just not as much as they hoped for. New York will might make it slightly easier for companies with a major stake in ARM to buy chunks, but there is a lot to be said for continuing the hands off approach. This has worked well so far and stopped ARM going down the committee or Symbian routes.

  2. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

    Tech companies or the City of London?

    -> the government's seriousness about the future of the LSE

    There it is again. It's not about tech companies. It is about the cocaine-bingeing slippery eels in the City. The City doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as they get a slice.

  3. Howard Sway Silver badge

    British government is preparing a final campaign of flattery

    It takes a bit more than flattery. Bribery, usually, or as they prefer to call it, "subsidies".

    It's going to be very expensive to cover up the stupidity of letting it go in the first place, and trying to dress that up as a "win" will be as shameless as everything else Ms. Cheese says.

  4. Roj Blake Silver badge

    Fun Fact

    Most people think that Liz is short for Elizabeth, but in this case it's short for Lizard.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Fun Fact

      You are David Icke and I claim m £5!

  5. xyz Silver badge

    Get rid of that questionnaire

    I have now taken to filling in that bloody questionnaire on every page i visit. If everyone does the same then....

    Happy Friday everyone.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

      yes I am filling that always out as well , but started from the third time to fill in random answers

    2. devin3782

      Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

      I'm also doing this, messing with surveys are always good fun because they're completely useless they never ask the right questions

    3. Aleph0

      Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

      I have taken to uBlock and wrote a personal filter matching the CSS of its container <div>. Won't post the code here because I don't want to run afoul of moderation, but targeting its height of 500 pixels is working well so far.

      1. Vometia has insomnia. Again. Silver badge

        Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

        I also used uBlock, though a slightly different message. I now have a garp where it used to be but at least it's less irritating.

    4. BOFH in Training

      Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

      Every new survey, I fill it out properly once and then ignore it the rest of the time.

      I don't bother filling in surveys in most sites, I do try to make an exception for the reg.

    5. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Holmes

      Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

      On the subject of questionnaires, and... the government, take a look at this set of rigged questions in a public consultation...

      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1081018/choice-on-units-of-measurement-markings-and-sales-consultation.pdf

      In section 3, "For Consumers"

      The questions only really put 1 side of the argument and are stacked in favour of the position they seek to promote - namely, bringing back Imperial measures/giving more prominence to Imperial measures.

  6. TimMaher Silver badge
    Trollface

    Lord Gerry Grimstone

    Was he in “Game of Thrones”? Or “Lord of the Rings” perhaps?

  7. Lordrobot

    CHEEZE LIZ.... this is crazy...

    Softbank isn't selling, they are UNLOADING ARM to the US Exchanges. AS such ARM will be a Murican Company and it won't be Switzerland unless by Switzerland you mean IRS destroying the Swiss Banking system that snitched on US FAT CATs with Swiss Bank Accounts. That Europe we all know well.

    The Muricans have already voiced the desire to unload Manchester and basically remove ARM from the UK. And why not... THE US SEMICONDUCTOR colossus will be centred around OHIO. ARM OF OHIO... Has a ring to it. The fact the US will now have control of ARM will see to it that ARM is weaponized. It would have done the same thing if Nvidia had owned it. Consider the Biden blockage of Nvidia A100 GPUs to CHINER...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Move along....nothing to see here...

    TSMC -- a 100 Billion dollar (note the "B") in seven new chip foundries in Arizona

    Intel -- a Billion dollar investment (exact size unknown) in new chip foundries in the US

    Now if we were seeing Billion dollar INWARD investment in the UK....well I might just stop and look.

    But in the meantime ---- ARM.....just noise!!

    1. James Anderson

      Re: Move along....nothing to see here...

      It’s irrelevant now anyway. The smart money is moving to RISC-V (NASA is almost the definition of smart in this er.. space) nobody will ever trust ARM to be independent and impartial again.

      Yet another case of British industry being destroyed by the City of London avarice.

    2. martinusher Silver badge

      Re: Move along....nothing to see here...

      In the chip business a billion either way is just tea money. Its kind of scary, really, but that's the way the world works.

      ARM may or may not be a good investment. Its got a lead over RISC-V because its better developed and well established but architecturally its a toss up between the two. Since ARM based products are commodity products for the most part vendors are going to squeeze the most out of a design so a royalty free design will eventually win out.

    3. that one in the corner Silver badge

      Re: Move along....nothing to see here...

      As ARM is IP only, and Intel have said they'll fab ARM-based designs now (TSMC always would), money they spend on fabs will end up as more capacity to build designs licensed from ARM. Whether that leads to licence money coming into (or at least through) the UK - well, that is what all the discussion about retaining Cambridge HQ is about.

  9. IvorTE

    The UK government needs to stop wasting time and money trying rescue a mistake it made 7 years ago. Arm stopped being British when SoftBank acquired the company. The HQ is effectively in Silicon Valley and has been for the last five years.

    Maybe the UK government needs to address why there isn’t another British tech company on the ascendancy!

    1. NewModelArmy
      Unhappy

      It is disgraceful how our UK government has let the UK decline as it has done for the tech industry.

      Looking back, all the Tories know how to do is to sell stuff, or look to the banks.

      The list is so long, and i can't be bothered to type it all out, but there is so much wrong with the Tories and the latest 12 years of their government.

    2. steviebuk Silver badge

      I can't remember the exact details, there is a video of it on YouTube. Where they asked a young Alan Sugar in the 80s why he makes all his electronics abroad and has them shipped in. He moaned about tax. I think he said if its made in the UK the electronics get taxed but if he makes it abroad and imports it, there is no tax on it. I think that's the same issue.

  10. pimppetgaeghsr

    What will putting this on the LSE even achieve other than a good headline for the party that let it be sold off.

    Their CEO is from the US and his C-suite will most likely be primarily American or American/Israeli soon.

    Their main design centre is in the US. (Their flagship cores are developed there with Cambridge a close second)

    Their C-suite are all mostly in Silicon Valley

    Most of the VPs are in the US

    Any significant investors in the IPO will be American corporations or investment funds.

    1. martinusher Silver badge

      (It doesn't help that most Americans think Cambridge is in Massachusetts. Home of a few quality universities as well, just to muddy the water further.)

  11. steviebuk Silver badge

    So...

    ...if all of Arm is listed does that not mean in one large whack, Nvidia can just try and buy all the shares or at least a controlling amount?

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