General / Off-Topic ARM Sold

[Soliluna]

ARM Sold to a Japanese Company.

Thoughts?

 

[Andy Kappa]

Shame really. Quite possibly the most successful tech company that most people have never heard of - and British too (or at least it used to be ).

I still have an Archimedes A410/1 (upgraded to A440 spec) from the late '80s. Light years ahead of the competition at the time.

 

[FuzzySpider]

Theresa May two weeks ago:

http://www.theresa2016.co.uk/we_can_make_britain_a_country_that_works_for_everyone

Because as we saw when Cadbury’s – that great Birmingham company – was bought by Kraft, or when AstraZeneca was almost sold to Pfizer, transient shareholders – who are mostly companies investing other people’s money – are not the only people with an interest when firms are sold or close. Workers have a stake, local communities have a stake, and often the whole country has a stake. It is hard to think of an industry of greater strategic importance to Britain than its pharmaceutical industry, and AstraZeneca is one of the jewels in its crown. Yet two years ago the Government almost allowed AstraZeneca to be sold to Pfizer, the US company with a track record of asset stripping and whose self-confessed attraction to the deal was to avoid tax. A proper industrial strategy wouldn’t automatically stop the sale of British firms to foreign ones, but it should be capable of stepping in to defend a sector that is as important as pharmaceuticals is to Britain.

Theresa May on this:

https://reportuk.org/2016/07/18/the...e-takeover-of-british-tech-firm-arm-holdings/

Mrs May”s official spokeswoman said the swoop by the Japanese firm for one of the UK”s biggest technology companies “was a clear vote of confidence in Britain” and showed the UK could make a success of leaving the EU.

Mrs May gave her support to the deal after a conversation with SoftBank”s chief Masayoshi Son on Sunday, where she learned of the Japanese firm”s intent to double ARM”s UK workforce and keep its headquarters in Cambridge.

With Corbyn still providing a non-opposition, I'm going to give the NHS maybe 4 more years before it is stripped bare and sold off entirely to foreign interest groups.

 

[Talarin]

I don't think its a negative thing. Obviously it's a shame to lose British ownership of a major technology player, but a buy-out extends their reach considerably and from what I read SoftBank know what they're about.

 

[beelbeebub]

To be fair Softbank would seem to be the best option if ARM were to be bought out, but I can't help feeling this is yet more "selling off the family silver".

Although Softbank have committed to keeping the management structure and expanding on site, they will now own the IP, which really is the valuable bit.

The UK has a not so proud history of failing to exploit it's inventions, jet engines & aviation, computing, LCD, thermal imaging etc.

ARM represented one of the few examples of a British invention successfully capitalised upon in the UK.

Mind you, with science and R&D already taking a hit, maybe that won't be an issue in years to come as we won't have the inventions to capitalise on.

 

[Finbar]

I bought shares in Acorn (which later became ARM) about 30 years ago, because of the very impressive capabilities of the Archimedes. So we stand to make money from this sale. However I will be voting against the takeover because:

1. The share value has continually increased and shows every sign of continuing to do so. The UK appears to be giving away that continuing future tax income against an unenforceable promise of 3000 more jobs for the next few years.

2. Last week Microsoft sacked over a thousand ex-Nokia workers in Finland as they got out of mobiles, having miscalculated their ability to make the Nokia purchase a success. Tech takeovers do not always work out as originally advertised.

3. The UK Government appears to be totally unaware of the future strategic and economic importance of the internet of things. Retaining in the UK a company that will influence designs for the chips that control our cars, lighting, mobiles and power stations should be a major national priority.

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

it was said before the vote that Brexit would cost us an arm and a leg, there goes the ARM...

 

[Andy Kappa]

it was said before the vote that Brexit would cost us an arm and a leg, there goes the ARM...

I've heard a rumour that this guy is thinking of emigrating as well.

 

[who?]

Odd timing. While the government are (unsurprisingly) promoting this as an example of the strength of the British economy, at the same time SoftBank is taking a pummelling over this deal; due to it already being mired in debt and now buying ARM at a hefty premium.