The news was expected, it is official since February 8, Nvidia will not buy ARM from SoftBank. The operation initially announced at 40 billion dollars in September 2020 met with hostility from both industrialists in the sector and regulatory authorities around the world.
Nvidia takeover smells like sulfur
In one communicated joint Nvidia and SoftBank ended up resigning themselves, ” The parties have agreed to terminate the agreement due to significant regulatory challenges preventing consummation of the transaction, despite the parties’ good faith efforts “.
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The prospect of seeing the champion of GPUs and AI accelerators get their hands on the intellectual property of the chips present in almost all smartphones and connected objects has not thrilled the sector.
Qualcomm, Microsoft and others have expressed reservations about the powers that Nvidia could have acquired. The American company could have manipulated ARM license prices, restricted access to certain technologies, collected sensitive information about them, its competitors.
Regulators were also quick to react. The British competition authority, ARM’s native country, opened an investigation in June 2021, extended in November. China has done the same by announcing excessively long investigations.
Notified so early of Nvidia’s takeover of ARM, the European Commission hit the ground running at the end of October 2021. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in the United States, joined the party in December 2021 by taking legal action to block the operation.
Nvidia and SoftBank had anticipated these difficulties by giving themselves 18 months, an abnormally long time, to conclude their agreement. As the deadline approached, in March 2022, its realization seemed compromised.
SoftBank Prepares ARM’s IPO
SoftBank will keep $1.25 billion prepaid by Nvidia. The American company will console itself with a 20-year ARM license. Handsome gamer, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, “ ARM has a bright future, and we will continue to support them as a proud licensee for decades to come. “.
This future for ARM should rhyme with the stock market. The British company left the stock exchange in 2016, having entered it in 1998, following its acquisition by SoftBank for 32 billion dollars. She is expected to return there by March 31, 2023.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, on the same wavelength as Jensen Huang, believes that the cloud, automotive, connected objects and metaverse open up many opportunities for ARM and decided to ” seize this opportunity and start preparing for ARM’s IPO “.
The historic CEO of ARM, Simon Segars, left the position he held for 30 years, faced with the demands of preparing for an IPO. He was replaced by René Haas, senior executive of the company, formerly of Nvidia. It is he who will be responsible for preparing the future of the British company.