Britain is open for business – and open to foreign investment.
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The purchase, announced yesterday, is SoftBank’s largest takeover to date and piles on more debt at the Japanese tech and telecoms group, whose investments have ranged from USA carrier Sprint to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
ARM shares jumped more than 45 percent in early trading on Monday.
He added: “The investor wants to grow the number of jobs in the United Kingdom and keep its headquarters in Cambridge, the government wants to see the companies work together to make sure these commitments are binding”.
“I have spoken to SoftBank directly”.
As part of the deal, Softbank committed to doubling the number of ARM employees in the United Kingdom over the next five years.
“This £24 billion investment will be the largest ever Asian investment in the United Kingdom”.
Mr. Son said then that he wanted to stay on to develop Sprint but also to complete the transformation of SoftBank into a tech investment powerhouse.
Chancellor Philip Hammond reacts to this news by saying that this is not a loss for the United Kingdom, on the contrary, it shows that United Kingdom is still open for business with global investors: “Britain is open for business – and open to foreign investment”.
Analysts also expect more British firms to become foreign takeover targets, with the plunge in the value of the pound making United Kingdom firms cheaper following the Brexit vote.
The swoop by the Japanese firm for one of the UK’s biggest technology companies, which comes less than a month after the Brexit vote, proves the country remains as attractive ever to overseas investors, the Prime Minister said.
“A lot more British firms could become foreign-owned quite soon”, he added – also after South African general retail group Steinhoff Interna-tional last week agreed a takeover of British discounter Poundland for around £597 million. Under the agreement, announced July 18, Softbank will pay about $22.70 per share for ARM stock, which is a 43 percent premium on the stock’s closing price on July 15, according to the companies.
According to the Japanese investor, he had been monitoring ARM Holdings over the past ten years and he believed that now is the right to invest in the British company that provides technology for nearly all smartphones including the iPhone and Samsung Electronics (OTCMKTS:SSNLF) (KRX:005930)’s Galaxy.
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The man who helped spin ARM Holdings out from Acorn Computers in 1990 also said the technology firm had sold 15 billion microchips in 2015, which was more than United States rival Intel had sold in its entire history.
