ARM Becomes the Focal Point of a Growing Bidding War as TSMC and Foxconn Jump Into the Fray
 
SoftBank representatives have purportedly approached several key players in the tech space for a possible sale of the British chip designer. To date, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA 450.99 0.42%), TSMC (NYSE:TSM 82.26 2.58%), Foxconn, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL 437.24 -0.32%), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM 110.78 -0.15%), and Samsung have contemplated ARM’s acquisition. Some companies – including NVIDIA, TSMC, and Foxconn – have even received additional financial information in order to assist them in evaluating ARM’s prospects. However, as per the recent reports, Apple has stepped away from the negotiating table. Moreover, according to Reuters, Samsung has also declined to invest in ARM. This leaves NVIDIA at the forefront of the negotiating table, followed by TSMC and Foxconn.
 
https://wccftech.com/arm-becomes-the-focal-point-of-a-growing-bidding-war-as-tsmc-and-foxconn-jump-into-the-fray/
 
 
 

My money is on either Samsung or Apple grabbing it.

What is not being said is how this'll effect cheap SOCs like Raspberry Pi. I could imagine anyone who buys ARM will jack up the pricing. No more $5 Raspberry Pi Zeros for you.

Well, as per the exclusive reporting by UK’s Evening Standard, NVIDIA is now entering final talks for acquiring ARM, with a potential deal emerging before the end of the current summer season. According to the report, SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son is demanding a price as high as £40 billion ($52 billion) for ARM. This translates to a premium of around $20 billion relative to the $32 billion that SoftBank paid in 2016 to acquire ARM.
 
https://wccftech.com/arm-may-be-acquired-by-nvidia-nasdaq-nvda-before-the-end-of-this-summer/

I think Softbank will sell pieces of ARM to various companies

rjohnson11
I think Softbank will sell pieces of ARM to various companies

There was a lot of interest in this exact thing. Reportedly 2-3 companies wanted small stakes in ARM, but not the entire controlling stake as that would cause too many problems. 

NVIDIA Should Finish Arm Acquisition By Next Week For Roughly $40 Billion
 
Graphics processing unit (GPU) designer NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA 486.58 -1.20%) is in the final stages of its acquisition of British chip house Arm technologies reports the Wall Street Journal. The deal is now valued at $40 billion, a drop from earlier reports that claimed that Softbank's C.E.O Masayoshi Son was demanding roughly $52 billion for the chip designer.
 
NVIDIA and Arm have been conducting exclusive talks for the acquisition over the course of the past few weeks, and The Journal's sources are hopeful that the matter might reach a close as soon as next week, provided that the talks do not fall through. The transaction will be valued in-between $40 billion - $45 billion, believe the sources, and NVIDIA will pay in both cash and in stock.
 
NVIDIA had roughly $11 billion in cash, which increased to $15 billion at the end of its first quarter.
 
By acquiring Arm, NVIDIA will be able to drastically expand the scope of its current operations. While currently the company designs and sells GPUs for personal computers, enterprise application and automotive customers, by bringing the chip design house under its wing, NVIDIA will be able to target the vast smartphone and Internet of Thing (IoT) market – in addition to gaining access to Arm's critical competencies of designing central processing units (CPUs) for servers.
Through combining these CPUs with its GPUs, NVIDIA will be able to provide its customers with a one-stop holistic solution that will enable the company to push its highly performant GPUs to potential new customers and increase market penetration as a result of this.
 
 
https://wccftech.com/nvid...cquisition-40-billion/
 

Xavier Zepherious
NVIDIA Should Finish Arm Acquisition By Next Week For Roughly $40 Billion
 
Graphics processing unit (GPU) designer NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA 486.58 -1.20%) is in the final stages of its acquisition of British chip house Arm technologies reports the Wall Street Journal. The deal is now valued at $40 billion, a drop from earlier reports that claimed that Softbank's C.E.O Masayoshi Son was demanding roughly $52 billion for the chip designer.
 
NVIDIA and Arm have been conducting exclusive talks for the acquisition over the course of the past few weeks, and The Journal's sources are hopeful that the matter might reach a close as soon as next week, provided that the talks do not fall through. The transaction will be valued in-between $40 billion - $45 billion, believe the sources, and NVIDIA will pay in both cash and in stock.
 
NVIDIA had roughly $11 billion in cash, which increased to $15 billion at the end of its first quarter.
 
By acquiring Arm, NVIDIA will be able to drastically expand the scope of its current operations. While currently the company designs and sells GPUs for personal computers, enterprise application and automotive customers, by bringing the chip design house under its wing, NVIDIA will be able to target the vast smartphone and Internet of Thing (IoT) market – in addition to gaining access to Arm's critical competencies of designing central processing units (CPUs) for servers.
Through combining these CPUs with its GPUs, NVIDIA will be able to provide its customers with a one-stop holistic solution that will enable the company to push its highly performant GPUs to potential new customers and increase market penetration as a result of this.
 
 
https://wccftech.com/nvid...cquisition-40-billion/
 

👍

Oof. Bad news for consumers. There goes the thriving maker space.

https://www.techspot.com/...n-sale-arm-nvidia.html
 
While the terms of the deal have yet to be revealed, an official announcement could come as early as next week.