Intel survives as Nvidia calls off the acquisition plan with Arm

Intel survives as Nvidia calls off the acquisition plan with Arm.

SoftBank and Nvidia have announced their decision to call off efforts to acquire UK-based computing technology company Arm. The deal came to an unfruitful end following lingering scrutiny that has followed the deal since it was conceived.

Arm said it is now exploring a public offering in lieu of the acquisition, pushing for an IPO to happen in the next 12 months.

In December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), filed a lawsuit to halt the acquisition following a barrage of petitions from players in the industry. The argument has been that the deal will hurt market competition.

When this deal was announced, I wrote: “Intel has been disintermediated by TSMC with its legendary manufacturing moat dismantled by the global contract chip manufacturer. The implication is that the castle which Intel has protected for decades is largely vulnerable now.

“Nvidia does not build big foundries but focuses on R&D designs while its manufacturing partners make the chips. It is a leader in modern chips for datacenters, gaming, AI and more. If ARM goes to Nvidia, it will pick a huge part of the mobile sector, and if that happens, Intel will bleed for years.”

The biggest winner here is Intel because if Nvidia had been armed by Arm, it would have been an asymmetric attack on Intel. Arm is the hardware operating system for the mobile world, and housing it within Nvidia would have dislocated everything in our modern world. From Microsoft to Sony to Samsung to Tecno to …., Arm has been powering the age of mobile internet. That Arm remains unbounded is the right thing!

Focus on the job done and not papers. If HND does the same job as BSC, pay should be the same. Forget JAMB or title of degree or school. In Microsoft Nigeria, one of their Lead Scientists did not attend any university/poly in Nigeria when Microsoft hired him. This guy is so good that they have relocated him to London out of Lagos. It would be pure wickedness if you still want to pay him WAEC grade.

===press release

SANTA CLARA, Calif., and TOKYO – Feb. 7, 2022 – NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (“SBG” or “SoftBank”) today announced the termination of the previously announced transaction whereby NVIDIA would acquire Arm Limited (“Arm”) from SBG. The parties agreed to terminate the Agreement because of significant regulatory challenges preventing the consummation of the transaction, despite good faith efforts by the parties. Arm will now start preparations for a public offering.

“Arm has a bright future, and we’ll continue to support them as a proud licensee for decades to come,” said Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. “Arm is at the center of the important dynamics in computing. Though we won’t be one company, we will partner closely with Arm. The significant investments that Masa has made have positioned Arm to expand the reach of the Arm CPU beyond client computing to supercomputing, cloud, AI and robotics. I expect Arm to be the most important CPU architecture of the next decade.”

SBG today also announced that, in coordination with Arm, it will start preparations for a public offering of Arm within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. SBG believes Arm’s technology and intellectual property will continue to be at the center of mobile computing and the development of artificial intelligence.

“Arm is becoming a center of innovation not only in the mobile phone revolution, but also in cloud computing, automotive, the Internet of Things and the metaverse, and has entered its second growth phase,” said Masayoshi Son, Representative Director, Corporate Officer, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Group Corp. “We will take this opportunity and start preparing to take Arm public, and to make even further progress.”

Mr. Son continued, “I want to thank Jensen and his talented team at NVIDIA for trying to bring together these two great companies and wish them all the success.”

NVIDIA and SBG had announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement, under which NVIDIA would acquire Arm from SoftBank, on September 13, 2020. In accordance with the terms of the agreement, SBG* will retain the $1.25 billion prepaid by NVIDIA, which will be recorded as profit in the fourth quarter, and NVIDIA will retain its 20-year Arm license.

• 24.99% of Arm shares are attributable to SoftBank Vision Fund 1.

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