A Japanese company buys ARM for 32 billion

[cobito]

ARM Holdings has been developing the architecture that we can currently see in the vast majority of smartphones, tablets, network devices, household appliances and more for over 15 years.

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[Espinetenbolas]

I suppose that with the premium paid, they are playing the long game to recoup the investment because otherwise, a purchase like this makes little sense… time will tell if they were right... Intel wants its piece of the pie and it remains to be seen if they will finally come up with something decent for the mobile segment.

[kynes]

@Espinetenbolas:

I guess with the premium paid they are playing the long game to recoup the investment because otherwise there is little point in a purchase like this… time will tell if they got it right... Intel wants a piece of the pie and it remains to be seen if they finally come up with something decent for the mobile segment.

There's one detail, recently Softbank sold Supercell to Tencent with a brutal profit in a very short time. They have to reinvest this fiscal year if they don't want to have to pay a fortune in taxes, that may have facilitated the deal. They paid just over $1.5 billion for 51% of Supercell in 2013, I can't find out how much they paid for the rest up to the 83% they have sold to Tencent, but Tencent has paid them $8.5 billion less than 15 days ago, so this deal has helped a lot with the ARM deal, in addition to getting out of Supercell now that it seems to be flagging.

Also, the weakness of the pound has helped a lot... The odd thing is that no one else has been interested in ARM, which has a consolidated business model, a lot of customers who depend on this company, and solid annual profits.

Regarding Intel, I think they have canceled the atom until further notice, so I don't think they want to compete with ARM in the segment of a lot of volume and little margin, they are more comfortable in the one with operating margins of more than 50%

PS: Now that I think about it, perhaps the sale of Supercell was to finance this purchase and not the other way around. Perhaps they wanted a much bigger fish, and had to divest in other companies to facilitate the purchase of ARM. Who knows.