As the majority owner of Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) and Softbank Mobile, Softbank has networks through which it can do deals that involve far more than mere chip sales, and the expertise acquired in making that happen should bring it deals in other geographies.
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SoftBank’s charismatic founder Masayoshi Son has said the company had raised almost 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) in cash over the last few months through asset disposals, including the sale of shares in Alibaba.
The deal valued the technology firm at 1700p per share, a 43% premium on Friday’s closing share price of 1189p.
After jumping on news of the deal on Monday, ARM’s shares fell 0.5% on Tuesday to £16.67, suggesting shareholders do not yet expect a bidding war.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank, said the investment marked its strong commitment to the United Kingdom and the “competitive advantage” of the science and technology industries in Cambridge.
Japan’s Softbank said on Monday that it will buy British semiconductor company ARM Holdings for about 31 billion US dollars, the largest ever purchase of overseas business for the telecoms giant.
SoftBank may eventually try to get ARM chips into the servers that power its own telecommunications gear, or boost the license fee ARM gets from those that use its designs, Krewell said. ARM’s processor and graphics technology have been used by many big smartphone companies like Apple, Samsung and Huawei.
At a press conference in London on Monday, SoftBank Group President Masayoshi Son stressed that it will be common in the future for all types of goods, including automobiles and home electronics, to be connected to the internet.
The sale comes three weeks after Britain voted to leave the European Union, an event that devastated financial markets, with sterling down 11 percent against both the dollar and the yen. “Brexit did not bring us any discount”, he said.
ARM is a really important company for the technology sector in UK.
Softbank is a Japanese company, but ARM’s operations will remain centered in the U.K. The chip designer has 1,600 employees in the U.K., and it will double that head count over the next five years.
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Shares in the United Kingdom technology firm surged by 45% at the open of the London Stock Exchange to 1,742.85p per share, adding £7.56bn to ARM’s market value. “Softbank’s decision confirms that Britain remains one of the most attractive destinations globally for investors to create jobs and wealth”. The company also has strong ties to the automotive market and more recently has been pushing its products into devices for the Internet of Things (IoT).
