From Yahoo Finance, November 19:
Nvidia’s (NVDA) $40 billion deal to purchase the U.K.-based chip developer ARM from SoftBank is all but dead. That’s at least what Susquehanna senior equity analyst Chris Rolland took away from Nvidia’s leadership during the company’s Q3 earnings call on Wednesday.
“I think some of the commentary [on Wednesday] kind of puts the final nail in the ARM coffin here,” Rolland told Yahoo Finance Live.
Nvidia initially made the $40 billion deal public in September 2020 with expectations that it would be finalized within 18 months, or the first quarter or 2022. During the company’s earnings call, however, it laid out the huge regulatory obstacles it needs to clear including enhanced regulatory scrutiny in the U.K, where ARM is based. The U.S., E.U., and China would also have to approve the deal.
"Regulators in the U.K. and the EU declined to approve the transaction in Phase 1 of their review processes, expressed numerous concerns, began a more in-depth Phase 2 review on the transaction’s impact on competition, and, in the UK, a Phase 2 review of the impact on the UK’s national security interests," the company said in a statement following its earnings report.
"Although regulators and some ARM licensees have expressed concerns or objected to the transaction, we continue to believe in the merits and benefits of the acquisition to ARM, its licensees, and the industry."....
....MUCH MORE
Additionally, earlier in the week the FT was reporting:
UK announces national security probe of Nvidia’s $54bn Arm deal
The British government has launched an in-depth investigation into US chipmaker Nvidia’s takeover of the UK-based technology company Arm on national security grounds, throwing another hurdle in the path of the $54bn deal.
Digital and culture secretary Nadine Dorries has ordered a phase 2 investigation into the transaction on public interest grounds, meaning it will now be subject to a full-blown probe into antitrust and security issues. The UK competition watchdog uncovered “serious competition concerns” with the deal in July.
In a letter to the parties published on Tuesday, the government said: “The secretary of state believes that the ubiquity of Arm technology makes the accessibility and reliability of Arm IP necessary for national security.”.....MORE
I've been saying for years that the UK Department of Culture Media and Sport should have blocked the initial sale to Softbank:
May 2019
"SoftBank mulls IPO of $100 billion Vision Fund"
Crap. As we've said on these pages a few times, a cash crunch to force the re-listing of ARM Holdings would have been nice....
*****....The RCEWA should have figured out how to designate ARM as an Object of Cultural Interest pursuant to the 2002 Export Control Act.
Or something.
Oh well, the RCEWA did keep T.L Lawrence's dagger in British Hands.
Or the Queen should have put the (dainty) Royal foot down. Or entered into a bidding war with Mr. Son.
I mean if Charles can have high-profile commercial interests—Prince Charles reveals his car runs on cheese and wine ...— why can't his mom?
Well, I guess she does, what with the Crown Estate, but at the moment the wind generation projects aren't bringing in the money, what with the wind drought and all.
