ARM Holdings bought by Japanese company for £24.3 billion

[Becky]

The Cambridge-based tech company ARM Holdings plc is in the process of being bought by SoftBank Group Corp. for £24.3 billion ($32 billion USD), which is reportedly the Japanese-based company's largest ever investment. In case you haven't heard of ARM, it is the company responsible for designing processors which are used within 95 per cent of all smart phones. They have also designed processors for TVs, tablets, cars, drones, cameras... not to mention their work with microcontrollers, which feature in a large variety of devices.

So what effect could this acquisition have? SoftBank seem to have made the most of the weak pound, but the UK government has said the acquisition is a sign of confidence in the UK economy following the decision to leave the EU. SoftBank is looking to grow the UK-based team at ARM by 50 per cent over the next five years, which is also encouraging.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

To learn more about ARM, check out this BBC article: What is ARM and why is it worth £24bn?

 

[nivrip]

Pity in a way as this is a truly British company whose products are used everywhere. I read that they produced 15 billion chips last year which is more than Intel has made in its whole history.

Let's hope it remains here in the UK and continues to prosper.

 

[Becky]

Let's hope it remains here in the UK and continues to prosper.

It sounds like it will, but I agree it is a shame it's no longer UK-owned. We could certainly do with more UK companies like this!

 

[TexasDrill]

Is there these days a truly British or American owned company that does not have some influence from either Germany, Asia or the still growing China market, who seem to be pushing to buy everything possible.

China has produced its version of the Award Winning Land Rover/Jaguar Evoque called the Land Wind.
A complete rip off and wholly worse made by poor crash testing, but people will buying thinking they are getting the better built version.