Arm Holdings Archives - Gizmochina

Nvidia $40bn acquisition deal failing leads to Arm cutting 1,000 jobs

Sean — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 10:15:34 +0000

Arm has just revealed that it might have to downsize its total workforce by around 12 to 15 percent across the globe. In other words, it might have to cut up to 1,000 jobs following the Nvidia acquisition deal falling through.

According to a SkyNews report, the UK based chip designer stated that most of the proposed downsizing will be felt in the UK and US, although, it did not reveal any finer details regarding other regions. In a statement, the company said that “Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline.”

The chip designer further added that “Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm’s global workforce.” The news follows after Nvidia failed to acquire Arm. For those unaware, the known graphics card maker was set to takeover the chip designer for a 40 billion US Dollar deal. But, opposition from various rival firms and anti-competition regulators from various nations stopped this deal. The deal would have Team Green buy the chip designer from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.

Notably, the Arm employees would have shared a 1.5 billion US Dollars acquisition payout and retention bonus if the takeover actually took place. But now, former Arm’s co founder, Hermann Hauser, who has since left the company claims that the deal have resulted in thousands of job being cut in the UK, as the headquarters was planned to shift to the US.

Google, Qualcomm, and Microsoft are against Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM

Sean — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 10:48:04 +0000

Last year, Nvidia had announced that it would be acquiring ARM Holdings in a deal worth 40 billion US Dollars. However, tech giants like Google, Qualcomm, and Microsoft are against the deal and have come out in protest of the deal, which is already facing major regulatory hurdles at the moment.

Back in September 2020, the deal had been announced by the known graphics card maker. The deal was between Nvidia and SoftBank Group, which is the current owner of ARM Holdings. Although, the deal is also pending regulatory approval. For those unaware, ARM is the firm behind the popular instructions and core designs, which it licenses to other companies rather than makings its own SoCs. At the moment, over 90 percent of all smartphones in the world utilize the ARM cores.

Notably, even Apple has moved towards the ARM based M1 chipset for its laptops, which use its instruction set but not the ARM cores. In other words, the ARM design is widely used and has heavy applications multiple industries and fields. The opposing companies are afraid that if Nvidia gains control over ARM, it might use it to leverage the licensing deals that the latter holds across the globe. As per the Digit report, Nvidia and ARM aren’t direct competitors, but its supply to its rivals might be against its interest after the acquisition.

Google, and other firms have alleged that this conflict of interest might lead to Nvidia also using its position to impact the business models of other companies. Apart from the opposition from these large corporations, ARM Holding’s China division is also a major hurdle for the acquisition. Allen Wu, Chief Executive of ARM China, is in a stand off with ARM China’s board, which wanted to remove him as head. Although, the Wu holds about 17 percent stake in the four investment firms of ARM China. So, the acquisition would have to wait till the issue is resolved as well.

Qualcomm voices its stance against the NVIDIA’s Acquisition of Arm: Report

Balaji S — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 18:49:15 +0000

Although it’s been months since NVIDIA announced the Acquisition of SoftBank-owned chipmaker Arm, the deal is yet to go through as it is under Scrutiny by authorities around the world. Now, Qualcomm has objected to this acquisition.

As reported by CNBC, Qualcomm has voiced its stance to US Govt’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and China’s State Administration for Market Regulation. Apparently, it believes that NVIDIA might prevent other companies from using Arm’s Intellectual Properties(IP) in the future.

For the unware, Arm, a British Chipmaker(Arm Holdings) is currently owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group. It specializes in Semiconductor, Software design and currently licenses its ARM architecture(via IP) to various chipmakers. Its chip architecture is currently used across the world in Consumer Electronics like Smartphones, Automation, Networking, etc.

In September 2020, after rounds of talks, NVIDIA said that it will acquire Arm for $40 billion. During this, both NVIDIA and Arm said that the deal will create a premier computing company for the age of AI. However, the deal is yet to be completed as it is under scrutiny as mentioned above.

Besides, Qualcomm is not the only company opposing this deal. Companies like Huawei and other Chinese tech firms had expressed their concerns. Among this, Lenovo’s Former Chief Engineer had said that China’s Anti-trust regulator would turn down the deal citing monopoly as reason.

Either way, FTC has now proceeded to the “second phase” of investigations according to the report. It has asked NVIDIA and Arm to produce more documents regarding the deal and the process is expected to continue for several months down the line.

As for NVIDIA, it has said to CNBC that it believes the regulators will see the benefits of this acquisition and approve it. However, industry sources say that it has a high chance of getting blocked by one of the regulators.