Current Arm owner Softbank, according to internal sources, is preparing a plan to take Arm public if Nvidia finally withdraws.
Nvidia wants to buy Arm for $40 billion, but that deal is meeting a lot of resistance. Arm is currently an independent party that sells licenses for the ARM architecture and processor designs to numerous players worldwide. Those fear the acquisition will erode Nvidia’s independence.
Arm customers are even Nvidia competitors in some cases. The fear is further that Nvidia will use Arm primarily to strengthen its own position in the market at the expense of others. Companies like Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Amazon and others have provided regulators worldwide with enough ammunition to torpedo the deal. On the other hand, Arm then claims that without Nvidia, it will be put in a bad competitive position.
Now, according to Bloomberg, it appears that Nvidia itself wants to pull the plug on it. The initial agreement is valid until Sept. 13, 2022, but can be automatically extended if approval takes longer. Originally Nvidia estimated that the approval would take 18 months, with the spring deadline looming, that doesn’t seem very realistic to us.
Nvidia officially serves Bloomberg with a response that it maintains its vision and that a transaction from Arm to Nvidia offers opportunities to accelerate Arm. “We remain hopeful that approval will be forthcoming,” the spokesperson said.
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