Arm going public after $66 billion Nvidia buy deal falls apart

Softbank will take Arm public to unload it, after Nvidia officially stopped its purchase due to concerns from regulators and Arm's current customer base.

In late 2020, Nvidia announced it would be buying Arm from SoftBank for nearly $40 billion in a cash and stock-based purchase. Nvidia's shares have since increased in value, making the deal worth roughly $66 billion today.

However, by January 2022 that Nvidia was already considering backing out of the deal.

Nvidia likely backed out of the deal, as it faced increasing pressure from regulators. UK politicians began to investigate the takeover in November 2021, citing national security concerns.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal in December 2021 over concerns it would stifle innovation and harm competition in the chip market.

Now, as reported by the Financial Times, the deal is officially over. According to sources familiar with the matter, Softbank is seeking to unload Arm through an initial public offering before the end of 2022.

Sources claim that SoftBank prefers the idea of listing Arm in New York and will seek to resist nationalistic pressure.

32 Comments

rezwits 856 comments · 17 Years

About 2 years ago

Dang come on NVIDIA, spend the $66 Billion. Darn we almost had um... ;)

p.s. and not get a dime of ROI

TomPMRI 52 comments · 7 Years

Balance has returned to the Force

22july2013 3736 comments · 11 Years

rezwits said:

Dang come on NVIDIA, spend the $66 Billion. Darn we almost had um... ;)

p.s. and not get a dime of ROI

Actually, if they create their IPO on a US Stock Exchange, as the article claims, it still is a small win for America, since there is also a Tokyo Stock Exchange.

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

22july2013 said:

rezwits said:

Dang come on NVIDIA, spend the $66 Billion. Darn we almost had um... ;)

p.s. and not get a dime of ROI

Actually, if they create their IPO on a US Stock Exchange, as the article claims, it still is a small win for America, since there is also a Tokyo Stock Exchange.

But, as the United States militarizes its industries and uses them as weapons of (cold) war, this would be a loss to the world.

According to today's America:
"If it's an American technology, we (the government) gets to determine who has access to it".
So much for freedom. So much for free markets. So much for capitalism. Good-bye! Nice knowing you!

larryjw 1036 comments · 9 Years

I don't see a problem with an IPO. What will ARM be worth on the market? How will that affect companies using ARM? Apple can buy a piece. We can all buy pieces.

Of course, there is competition. The Open RISC-V. There's a lot more infrastructure that must be built around RISC-V to become a competitor to ARM, but pushing out ARM into the wild by itself might make RISC-V more viable.

On the other hand, RISC-V has the real danger of producing an infinite variety of one-off clones all incompatible with each other. ARM, at least, controls the roadmap of its development.

I'm not sure Apple adheres to that roadmap for ARM, given its version of the processor outcompetes other versions of ARM. The Broadcom and TI versions of ARM are not something to write home about.