What better way to kick off the week than with a major mobile acquisition?
SoftBank has announced that it will acquire ARM Holdings for a cool £24.3 billion, or $31.4 billion USD, in cash. SoftBank says that it plans to keep ARM’s senior management and brand around as well as its headquarters in Cambridge, England. SoftBank plans to grow ARM, too. saying that it’ll at least double the employee headcount in the U.K. over the next five years and also grow the headcount outside of the U.K. during the same time.
Here’s what SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had to say about this deal:
“We have long admired ARM as a world renowned and highly respected technology company that is by some distance the market-leader in its field. ARM will be an excellent strategic fit within the SoftBank group as we invest to capture the very significant opportunities provided by the “Internet of Things”.
“This investment also marks our strong commitment to the UK and the competitive advantage provided by the deep pool of science and technology talent in Cambridge. As an integral part of the transaction, we intend to at least double the number of employees employed by ARM in the UK over the next five years.
“SoftBank intends to invest in ARM, support its management team, accelerate its strategy and allow it to fully realise its potential beyond what is possible as a publicly listed company. It is also intended that ARM will remain an independent business within SoftBank, and continue to be headquartered in Cambridge, UK.
“This is one of the most important acquisitions we have ever made, and I expect ARM to be a key pillar of SoftBank’s growth strategy going forward.”
While not everyone may not know who ARM is, most of us have likely used a product that they’ve had some influence on. ARM is behind the design of the processors found in the vast majority of smartphones, with its tech being inside more than 95 percent of smartphones. And with this deal, SoftBank thinks that it’ll have a good chance at capturing the Internet of Things market, too.
If you’re not aware, SoftBank is a Japanese company that has its own carrier in that country and previously purchased Sprint in the U.S.