The Japanese company is offering 1,700 pence in cash per share or a 43 percent premium to the British company’s Friday close, according to a statement Monday.
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SoftBank has pledged to embark on a major recruitment drive and hold on to ARM’s existing management team following its swoop for the British tech firm, which supplies technology for Apple’s iPhone.
ARM, based in the university city of Cambridge about 40 miles north of London, was founded in 1990 and now employs more than 3,000 people.
SoftBank will keep Arm’s headquarters in Cambridge, and said it intends to “at least double” the employee headcount in the United Kingdom over the next five years.
Less than a month after the abrupt resignation of Masayoshi Son’s anointed successor raised questions about SoftBank’s appetite for overseas investments, the group has made its ambitions clear with a £24bn move on ARM Holdings, Britain’s most successful technology company.
Asked whether Mrs May did not want to protect the United Kingdom tech sector from foreign takeovers, the PM’s official spokeswoman said: “We don’t see it like that”.
Still, with Britain still reeling from the uncertainty surrounding “Brexit”, the BBC says May’s government will also be keen to show the referendum result has not deterred foreign investment.
“We have long admired ARM as a world renowned and highly respected technology company that is by some distance the market-leader in its field”.
The news of the takeover of the quarter-century old mobile chip-maker comes just weeks after UK’s exit from the European Union.
SoftBank also holds a majority interest in U.S. cellular provider Sprint, acquired in a 2013 deal. The deal is also Softbank’s largest to date. The agreement, disclosed Monday, July 18, 2016, underlines SoftBank’s desire to expand in the Internet of Things, which refers to how nearly anything these days has become a computer device that can connect online.
In its last financial year, ARM posted revenues of £968 million, up 22 per cent on the previous year, with £511 million profit before tax.
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With this association with SoftBank, Aeris plans to expand its business in Japan and beyond, including India, Europe and the United States. Son has always been the chief engineer of SoftBank, and was behind Arora’s appointment, but he has repeatedly said he is trying to groom the next head of the company.
