The British chip designer ARM, whose technology can be found in almost all smartphones, has taken its first step on the stock exchange. The company, which belongs to the Japanese technology group Softbank, has filed a confidential draft of a stock market prospectus with the US regulator SEC. Softbank shares rose in Tokyo on Monday. The volume and price of the ARM stock placement will be determined later, it said.
Softbank bought the British company in 2016 for $32 billion (now €29 billion). A sale to chip group Nvidia failed due to concerns from competition watchdogs. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son has previously indicated that he intends to retain a majority stake in ARM after the stock placement.
ARM chips are in every smartphone
Apple and Samsung, among others, develop the processors for their smartphones based on the chip architectures designed by ARM. The semiconductor company Qualcomm, whose chips power many Android phones, also uses it.
The ARM designs won in smartphones over Intel chip systems – in part because they require less power. Meanwhile, chips based on ARM architectures are also used in data centers and Apple is using them in its new Mac computers.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
