Chipmaker Nvidia approached SoftBank Group about a possible takeover of its chip design company Arm in what could be the largest-ever acquisition in the silicon industry, Bloomberg reported.
Sources told Bloomberg Nvidia’s approach may not result in a deal and other bidders could step forwards.
SoftBank is considering a sale of some or all of its stake in Arm, or listing the unit as part of a broader asset sale strategy to help slash debt.
Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, highlighted the significant benefits of Nvidia acquiring Arm in a tweet.
Benefits to NVIDIA acquiring Arm:
-serious datacenter and PC CPU play to add to GPU and networking
-larger automotive BOM with sensors
-better monetize IoT
-monetize mobile market
Getting approved would be challenging but not insurmountable.$NVDA— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) July 22, 2020
But CCS Insight VP of research for the Americas Geoff Blaber was skeptical, tweeting the move is “deeply questionable” despite the clear attraction of Arm to Nvidia in terms of driving “growth in data centres, IoT and networking”.
“Regulatory clearance a massive question mark, plus value of Arm is its ecosystem. For that independence is imperative,” he noted.
Bloomberg reported SoftBank also held preliminary discussion with Apple about a possible sale, but the iPhone maker wasn’t planning to make a bid because it believes Arm’s licensing model would be a poor fit with its focus on hardware and software.
SoftBank last month detailed plans to sell a significant portion of its stake in T-Mobile US, aiming to raise $21 billion, and in May approved a move involving its domestic mobile operator as part of its asset sale plan.
Comments