Evening Standard: NVIDIA will agree to buy ARM before the end of summer for $ 50 billion
Competition for the purchase of British tech giant ARM is heating up: As reported by the London Evening Standard, American manufacturer NVIDIA has embarked on exclusive negotiations. Sources say the takeover will be completed by the end of the summer, and the deal could reach £ 40bn ($ 52.3bn).
ARM, a Cambridge-based chip development company, was put up for sale by Japanese Softbank back in April, with Goldman Sachs hired to contact interested buyers. The Softbank holding decided to sell such a valuable resource due to the fact that it itself is in a difficult situation: it suffered heavy losses after a series of unsuccessful investments, for example, in WeWork.
In April, Goldman Sachs approached Apple, which refused to buy the business. Then the bank tried to attract a consortium as buyers, which were supposed to include Qualcomm, Samsung, and NVIDIA – each would receive a certain share in ARM. However, Californian NVIDIA turned out to be the only interested buyer.
Softbank founder Masayoshi Son is seeking £ 40bn – nearly double the amount he paid in 2016 for the UK-based company. However, the takeover may not be approved by the British government, which in the same 2016 insisted that Softbank retain the ARM headquarters in the UK and increase its staff. Perhaps NVIDIA will have to agree to the same conditions.
The deal could also cause tensions in trade negotiations with Japan. Britain hopes to quickly strike a trade deal with Japan before leaving the European Union next year. All parties declined to comment.