Yeah right.
ARM is at the basis of so many stuff, with it being important for >half the industry, that nobody's going to let Apple eat it up. At the very least, the bigger companies can buy so many ARM-stock that Apple can't take it over anymore...
Anyways, even if Apple manages to buy ARM, ARM has already given licenses, including design-licenses, to many companies, and Apple won't be able to retract those. The only thing they can do is stop licensing new designs, or selling new licenses. But most ARM-employees will probably leave Apple immediately, and continue ARM-development somewhere else... Just look at what happened to PA-semi. So, the ARM-world will continue, but it might get fragmented, and might slowly dry up, as it'll be hard for new companies getting a license...
Oh, and we always still have MIPS, and I guess IBM, or someone else, could also make a low-power POWER.
It won't be the end of the world, but would effectively put Apple on its own little island, which will in fact heavily hurt Apple, as they'll have to do everything themselves, no more synergy with the rest of the world...
Stupid investors that believe every single rumor...
