According to a report from the Financial Times, Japanese multinational telecommunications company SoftBank has acquired British chip company ARM Holdings for £23.4 billion, with an announcement of the deal expected Monday UK time before the start of trading in the UK.
ARM Holdings is the company who designs the ARM processors and GPU’s used in many devices, with companies such as Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia licensing the designs. Around 15 million ARM-designed chips shipped last year for use in consumer products such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and more.
Softbank is currently the number 3 carrier in Japan, who have been branching out into other markets, most recently with the purchase of a controlling interest in US carrier Sprint.
The sale is apparently an all-cash deal and according to the Financial Times, both boards have agreed to the deal.
What this will mean going forward, will become more clear once the announcement is made and become official.
