Japanese company SoftBank acquires ARM for 29 billion euros – update

Japanese telecom and technology company SoftBank is acquiring British processor designer ARM Holdings. The acquisition involves an amount of 24.3 billion pounds, equivalent to 29 billion euros.

The acquisition was announced Monday by SoftBank and ARM. Sources from the Financial Times previously reported that the takeover was imminent. SoftBank would like to acquire ARM mainly because of the expected growth of the ‘internet of things’. ARM’s designs are suitable for IoT applications because of their economy. The New York Times also reported that SoftBank was negotiating a takeover.

Part of the deal is a commitment to create 1,500 jobs in the UK processor designer over the next five years. The company is also expanding its workforce outside the UK. ARM will continue to operate under its own name and will continue to operate without changes for the time being.

ARM is a British company with 4,000 employees, which last year had a turnover of 1 billion pounds, or 1.2 billion euros. The company’s designs find their way primarily to smartphone socs, but also increasingly to chips for networking equipment and internet-of-things devices. Last year, 15 billion ARM chips were produced by manufacturers that licensed ARM’s designs. In addition to the ARM architecture, ARM also designs Cortex cores for processors and GPUs in its Mali line.

SoftBank is a Japanese company with nearly 70,000 employees. The Tokyo-based company is active in the market for telecom services, technology and media, among other things. SoftBank owns, among other things, a 28 percent share in the Chinese Alibaba and 77 percent in the American Sprint Nextel. It also took over the Japanese branch of Vodafone in 2006.

Update, 09.20: ARM and SoftBank have confirmed the acquisition. The message has been adjusted accordingly.