ARM sold to Nvidia (by Softbank)

[Wheel_nut]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-5 ... YvV3mUqQe4

[richardtoohey]

Yes ... not sure how this is going to work out.

Apparently there are going to be promises made about HQ being kept in the UK etc. but ... we'll see ...

Doesn't feel like there is going to be a happy ending.

[Ramtop]

I don't see it happening, to be honest. Even discounting the very high likelihood of the UK government blocking the deal, or at least forcing onerous conditions on it, the Chinese regulators will not want to see such a critical IP provider under the control of what it sees as a hostile power.

I'm struck by Jensen Huang's statements, which suggest he has no real awareness of how controversial a move this is.

[8271]

Herman Hauser has written a letter to the Prime Minister and a copy of the text and a sign-up list for support is here : https://savearm.co.uk/

[scruss]

What can they do? It's already a Japanese company, so it's already offshore.

[vanpeebles]

Yes, the hoss bolted years ago, the stable has been long demolished, and the hoss died years ago anarl.

[Ramtop]

I think current ownership isn't really a factor in this case. ARM is a UK based and registered company, and does the vast bulk of its work in the UK. Should the relevant regulatory authority (the CMA in this case) choose to block the deal the legal basis for doing so would seem to be valid.

My understanding is that NVidia and Softbank could choose to ignore the ruling and complete the sale, but the CMA has powers to bring criminal charges so it's fairly unlikely that would happen. ARM's IP also falls under UK jurisdiction, so a court could order ARM management not to give NVidia access to that IP under threat of prosecution.

The government can stop this if they wish, the question is will they do so or settle for some promises from NVidia to invest money and create some jobs.