Not too long ago, reports indicated that British chip maker Arm Holdings may be up for sale. Its owner, SoftBank, may be looking to do either that, or putting it up for an IPO. New reports indicate that one prospective buyer may be GPU maker Nvidia.
Sources to Bloomberg say Nvidia made an approach in recent weeks, and that there may be other bidders that will emerge. The company itself also had a stake owned by SoftBank. The latter sold all of its stock to the former in early 2019.
And it looks like contrary to previous reports, Apple may not be interested in the acquisition. The Bloomberg report states that such a transaction will not work well with Apple’s business model. It’s also not a good look from a regulatory standpoint for the iPhone maker to own a licensee that also supplies many other rivals.
In fact, pretty much any other chipmaker that wants to make a bid for Arm will likely attract regulatory scrutiny. This was what allowed SoftBank, which was considered relatively neutral in the space, to acquire the company the last time it was for sale.
(Source: Bloomberg)
