SoftBank to dispose of ARM?
July 15, 2020
By Chris Forrester
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is reportedly looking to sell or restructure its stake in UK chipset maker ARM.
The WSJ reports that ARM has already announced plans to restructure itself by shifting two of its Internet of Things businesses into SoftBank.
SoftBank acquired ARM some 4 years ago paying $32 billion for the business but is now considering its options including a potential sale or IPO. SoftBank has previously spoken about spinning ARM off with an IPO and of the chip-maker as being its “most important” acquisition.
ARM’s chips are used or licensed by Apple and Qualcomm.
However, SoftBank itself is looking to reduce its significant debt burden and has reportedly said it wants to sell up $41 billions-worth of assets. SoftBank recently sold off T-Mobile in the US for $16 billion.
SoftBank remains a significant investor in Jack Ma’s Alibaba. But it hasn’t generally done well these past months having lost a fortune on its investment in WeWork (and failed to float the business) and suffering a sharp decline in its own share price as stakes in Uber, OneWeb and others soaked up a reported $35 billion of losses.