“Before this, I have never heard of any acquisition related matters. On the Sunday of July 17, all 14 ARM core managements received an email requesting that they arrive at 7pm on Sunday. The company.†On November 2nd, Ian Ferguson, the current vice president of ARM Global Marketing and Strategic Alliance, was still a bit embarrassed when he recalled Softbank’s acquisition of ARM. “Our idea is that either we are opened or our CEO leaves. Or, it was acquired."
Ian was faintly good news after entering the company's conference room, with beer, red and white wines on the table, but Ian was shocked when it came to the acquisition target, the purchase price and the company's valuation. Subsequently, ARM CEO Simon Segars told executives that the company's management, corporate culture, and business model will not change, and all executives will have a sigh of relief.
Ian Ferguson joined ARM as early as 2007. The acquisition made the internal core executives of ARM horrified.
Finally, Softbank acquired ARM for $32.2 billion and a 43% premium. This transaction involving the global hegemony in the field of chip design has been kept secret from beginning to end. Therefore, as soon as it was announced, it was like a deep-water bomb, which triggered a huge earthquake in the global chip industry.
"First of all, I was surprised. Then I think it is right. After the acquisition, I can maintain ARM independence and values. Only non-chip vendors like Softbank can do it," said Noel Hurley, general manager of ARM Application Markets. The time he got the news was early Monday morning, when he was still on his way to work. "I am very happy about this. With the support of Softbank, we can have more long-term strategic considerations."
In fact, independence is in this interview, Ian mentioned the most frequent words in the 21st century economic reports and other media. In the face of external doubts about the independence of ARM after the acquisition of Softbank, Ian has repeatedly stressed that ARM's management, corporate culture and business model will not change, this is the conditions and premise of this acquisition.
ARM remains independent
To a certain extent, for ARM executives, the acquisition of Softbank has relieved them.
ARM is the dominant player in the global smartphone chip architecture market. By continuously researching and developing semiconductor intellectual property (IP), it will license the IP to partners such as Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek, and the partners will manufacture chips. According to public data, ARM-based application processors are already used in more than 85% of smart mobile devices (including smartphones, tablets and laptops), and 50% of smartphones use ARMv8 architecture, called "mobile phone heart." "It is no exaggeration."
Independence in the chip industry constitutes a major advantage of ARM. In 2010, Apple had intended to acquire ARM but was rejected. At the time, ARM CEO Warren East said that ARM "is more valuable as an independent company." Therefore, many people in the industry expressed doubts about the sale of ARM to Softbank.
"ARM's current board of directors consists of three people, including Sun Zhengyi, who are Softbank members, and three others are ARM executives including Simon Segars," Ian told the 21st Century Business Herald. In explaining the relationship with Softbank, he stressed that the reason why ARM can maintain independence lies in the characteristics of Softbank itself. “Unlike Apple, Softbank has no direct competition with our customers. Further, even the chip makers of Softbank Investment will remain the same.â€
After the acquisition of the independence of the premise was approved by Softbank, the situation began to become beneficial to ARM. "This acquisition will help ARM to jump out of its focus on short-term performance, increase R&D investment, and engage in longer-term strategic planning," Ian noted. According to the introduction, ARM, which is lightly loaded, plans to continue to build a team of engineers around the world. “The UK engineering team will double in size, and we will also increase the research strength in China, Taiwan, China, and the United States. In the future, ARM's R&D strength will be closer to the market.â€
Han Xiaomin, general manager of CCID Consulting's IC business unit, told 21st Century Business Herald that the acquisition is not limited to financial support for ARM. With the help of Softbank in communications, cloud computing big data and emerging machine learning, ARM also Can expand its own technology and product capabilities to expand the broader application market.
On the other hand, the competitive situation facing ARM is also quite serious. At present, ARM has an absolute advantage in the mobile Internet era, but vendors such as Qualcomm also have very strong strength. "In addition, for future applications such as the Internet of Things market and artificial intelligence, ARM has not yet taken the lead in the market in terms of technology that is more suitable for machine learning and visual computing. It faces established vendors such as Intel and NVIDIA. The challenge of start-ups," said Han Xiaomin. This also constitutes the reason why ARM repeatedly emphasizes independence. They want to "unify all forces that can be united."
High-voltage Lines In The Car,EV High-voltage Unshielded Wire,Copper Core,Shielded Cable for car
Jiangyin City Weicheng Special Cable Co.,Ltd , https://www.weichengcable.com