Softbank to acquire ARM


I have absolutely no idea what this means for the future of ARM processors. I've never heard of SoftBank. I don't know how they run the various businesses they seem to love taking over. I'm at a loss.
 
I have no idea either. ARM itself was not good to free software. MALI and other designs could have had free software drivers for ages, nicely upstreamed and all, and ARM not only didn't help Luc to reverse engineer anything, but allegedly went after anyone suggesting to open any software. It could be worse, but not much.
I know nothing about SoftBank. According to wikipedia it has parts of Vodafone Japan (telecom) , Sprint (USA telecom), Alibaba (asian marketplace for electronics and other stuff, but also a conglomerate of companies), Supercell (escandinavian studio writing mobile games with micropayments), GungHo (Japanese games),etc.
My gut feeling is that it touches too many things and may try to somehow close things so that it can control one market from another, but who knows, and since ARM wasn't so nice already it might even be better.
We'll see, I guess.
It's just a reminder that you can't never depend on proprietary technology because companies change owners and directions without warning. So I wish all success to RISC-V.
 
Last edited:
I don't think it could mean any good for ARM but it is too difficult to guess how things will turn out. Let's just hope ARM can keep doing its good R&D as in the past.
 
Intels R&D budget is a third of the reported price. I find that to be way too little with the way intel spends its money.

Then again, from how i see it Intel buying ARM would split up the designs with everyone going their own ways. Assuming intel would operate it only for itself.
 
I've heard of softbank before, but only in passing. I'm not aware of any scandals they've been involved in. I suspect this is only a money deal, and at least while ARM continues to innovate and make money, softbank won't be exerting any pressure for change (and if ARM does make a misstep in the future, softbank is as likely to just sell up, I think, rather than trying to run anything from Tokyo).

Edit: It turns out ARM is going to be delisted from the stock exchange, so softbank can't just sell up through the market. They're not a majority shareholder now, they're a private owner. They could relist it, but if it's already failing by then that might be difficult.

Herman Hauser's quite concerned about ARM being run from Japan from now on, but I'm not sure I've ever really trusted that man's judgement on anything much. However, softbank is funding extra engineers for Cambridge, so it's not a completely hands-off operation.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top