Chip designer Arm, whose technology can be found in almost all smartphones, makes its IPO official. The company, which belongs to the Japanese technology group Softbank, published its stock market prospectus on Monday. The document initially gave no information on the volume and price of the stock placement on the Nasdaq technology exchange. However, it is expected to be the largest IPO of the year in the US.
The stock market prospectus shows, among other things, that the poor business generates stable profits. In the last financial year ending in March, Arm made a profit of $ 524 million on a turnover of about $ 2.68 billion (2.46 billion euros). In the prior fiscal year, it posted earnings of $549 million on sales of approximately $2.7 billion.
Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm as licensees
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 prevailed against Intel chip systems in smartphones – in part because they use less power. Now chips based on Arm architectures are also used in data centers, and Apple uses them in its Mac computers.
Acquisition by Nvidia failed
Softbank bought the British company Arm in 2016 for $ 32 billion. A sale to chip group Nvidia fell through last year over concerns from competition watchdogs. Then it was decided to go public. Softbank intends to retain a majority stake in Arm after the share placement.
Softbank was considering a total valuation of Arm of $60 billion to $70 billion prior to the IPO, according to Bloomberg news agency. Originally, revenues of $8 to $10 billion were targeted, but revenues could be lower as Softbank sought to retain a larger stake, the report said.
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.
