ARM

ARM is one of the world's leading suppliers of semiconductor components.

ARM's business model is related to the design and licensing of microcircuits, and not the production and sale of physical semiconductor products. The company issues intellectual property (IP) licenses for a network of partners, which includes leading suppliers of semiconductor components in the world. These partners use IE ARM developments to create and manufacture microarray-based systems, paying ARM a license fee for the original IE and royalties for each chip or manufactured crystal plate.

Best known as a processor developer, although she is also developing development tools under the brands RealView and KEIL brands, other systems, platforms and software. In 2013, it occupies a dominant position in the mobile chip development market.

Offices

The central office is located in Cambridge, UK. At the beginning of 2012, the staff of more than 1,700 people. ARM offices are located around the world, including design centers in France, India, Sweden and the USA.

History

2022

Reduction to 15% of staff

In mid-March 2022, ARM Holdings announced a reduction in staff by up to 15%. With this amount of layoffs, about 1000 employees will leave the company.

ARM intends to reduce staff in Britain and the USA. At the same time, the company promises that engineers and developers of layoffs will be affected to a lesser extent. By mid-March 2022, the company employs about 6,400 people, half of whom are in British offices and enterprises.

ARM fires 15% of employees after disruption of $40 billion deal with Nvidia

This will be a difficult time for everyone, so I want to clearly explain why we are doing this, "says a letter sent to the employees by ARM CEO Rene Haas. - To succeed in the opportunities before us, we need to be more disciplined about our expenses and investments. To remain competitive, we need to eliminate duplicate jobs now that we are a single ARM. We need to stop work that is no longer critical to our future success and think about how we do the work. It is imperative that we focus on actions that will advance our strategy at the right pace.

An ARM spokesman in a call with CNBC added that the company is constantly reviewing its business plan to ensure the right balance between opportunities and costs.

Mass layoffs at ARM became known a month after Nvidia announced its refusal to buy a British chip developer for $40 billion due to pressure from regulators in the United States, Great Britain and the EU. After that, ARM announced that the company's board of directors appointed 35-year-old Rene Haas as the new CEO. He replaced Simon Segars, who resigned as head and member of the board of directors after 30 years at the company.^[1]

Nvidia ARM sale failed due to regulators

On February 8, 2022, the disruption of the sale of Arm to Nvidia was officially announced. The latter will receive compensation from SoftBank (the owner of Arm) in the amount of $1.25 billion for the fact that the takeover of the British chip developer did not take place.

The merger of Arm and Nvidia was opposed by the authorities of some countries. Regulators of the UK and the European Union (EU) carefully studied the deal amid fears that this business agreement could lead to an increase in the cost of semiconductor products, a reduction in the range and suppression of innovation in the European market . The deal never received the approval of the antitrust authorities of China.

Nvidia ARM sale failed due to regulators

The value of the transaction, which depended on the price of Nvidia shares, initially amounted to about $40 billion and increased along with the rate of Nvidia quotes to $80 billion at the end of 2021, although since then the shares of the California company fell on February 8, 2022. Instead of selling Arm, the owners of the company decided to bring it to the exchange, but the listing dates and the trading platform for it by February 8, 2022 are not called.

In a separate statement, Arm said it had appointed Renee Haas to replace Simon Segars as chief executive officer and board member since taking effect. A veteran of the chip industry, Haas came to Arm in 2013, and before that he worked for Nvidia for seven years.

Against the transaction with Nvidia there was a founder of Arm Hermann Hauser, he demanded prohibition of sale of the company from the government of Great Britain. After that, the British Department of Digital Technology, Culture, Media and Sports announced that it would check the deal between Nvidia and Arm for national security reasons. The department feared negative consequences for the British technology industry if it was committed.

2020

Nvidia announces acquisition of ARM for $40 billion

On September 14, 2020, Nvidia announced the acquisition of ARM from Japanese holding SoftBank for $40 billion. Under the terms of the deal, which its participants want to close before the end of March 2022, Nvidia will pay $21.5 billion with its shares and $12 billion with its own funds, including $2 billion immediately after the conclusion of the agreement.

SoftBank may receive an additional $5 billion from Nvidia (in the form of securities or real money) if ARM achieves certain goals. In addition, Nvidia undertakes to pay ARM employees about $1.5 billion in its shares.

Nvidia acquired ARM for $40 billion

According to Bloomberg, the sale of ARM to Nvidia will be the largest deal in the chip market. However, it will undoubtedly attract the attention of regulators and provoke complaints from Nvidia competitors such as Samsung, Apple, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel and Huawei. All these companies use the ARM architecture in their products, as well as licensing their own developments. As a result of the transaction, SoftBank and its Vision Fund will own a 6.7-8.1% stake in Nvidia.

ARM co-founder Hermann Hauser in an interview with Reuters criticized the merger of Nvidia and ARM, calling it "a disaster for Cambridge, Britain and Europe."

This is the last European technology company of world importance, and it is sold to the Americans, "said Hauser.

According to him, the sale of ARM overnight will destroy the business model in the same way as it was with the Swiss semiconductor industry. One of the founders of the company called on the British government to put forward three requirements for the transaction:

• Job security in Britain;
• Save an open ARM business model
• Excluding customer relationships from US security checks.

According to the head of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, the main goal of buying ARM is to "integrate Nvidia technologies into a wide ARM network."^[2]

Nvidia plans to buy ARM

July 31, 2020 it became known that the company Nvidia is considering the possibility of buying British a chip developer, ARM, a company owned by the the Japanese corporation. SoftBank Group According to information the agency, both Bloomberg sides went to the "advanced stage" of negotiations over this issue.

Sources close to the topic say that the American company NVIDIA and the Japanese SoftBank Group will be able to reach an agreement within the next two weeks. And at the end of July 2020, the manufacturer of graphic chips is the only company that is interested in buying ARM. The exact amount of the possible deal is not called, but agency informants indicate that NVIDIA is ready to pay more than $32 billion for ARM.

Microarchitectures developed by the British company are found in almost every mobile processor created by companies such as Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung and Huawei. Some of them use them in their own smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics and gadgets of the Internet of Things segment. According to the source, NVIDIA overtook Intel on the issue of market capitalization, so the purchase of a British chip developer could consolidate this success for the Greens.

However, this transaction for NVIDIA may cost a fortune. According to the latest analytical forecast of Street Research LLP, the market value of the British chip manufacturer in 2021 could be $44 billion. And in 2025, the cost of ARM may increase to $68 billion^[3].

2017: Increase staff and share of IT professionals

In October 2017, it became known about a 25 percent increase in the number of ARM Holdings staff a year after the sale of the British company to the Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank for $32 billion. In addition to the total number of employees, the share of IT specialists is growing in the semiconductor company, which corresponds to the promises of the new owner.

According to a report provided by SoftBank to the UK Takeover  Panel, in the year since the closing of the ARM acquisition transaction (September 5, 2016), the chipmaker's staff has increased by more than 1,100 people. In the UK, ARM staff grew from 1,749 to 2,173 employees, and in other countries - from 2,651 to 3,330.^[4]

Absorbing ARM, the SoftBank promised to double the number of employees of a semiconductor company in the UK in five years, as well as expand the workforce abroad. However, SoftBank said that part of the increase will be provided by transferring employees of the Japanese corporation to ARM.

ARM increased staff by 25% and the share of IT specialists after selling the company for $32 billion

Another condition was to maintain 76.7% or increase the share of technicians in the general staff in order to prevent the spread of low-paid positions. By the beginning of October 2017, IT workers accounted for 77.9% of ARM staff.

Finally, SoftBank pledged to increase the number of ARM research laboratories in Cambridge from 9 to 11 in order to strengthen the company's R&D direction.

The Financial Times (FT) notes that all these measures are aimed at curbing the political reaction to the takeover of ARM, which has undergone a wave of criticism. Even one of the founders of ARM, Herman  Hauser, spoke negatively, calling the deal with SoftBank one of the most "sad and undesirable consequences" of the UK's plans to leave the EU (Brexit).^[5]

According to the press secretary of the British Prime Minister Theresa  May, the politician supports the deal, which, in her opinion, is concluded "in the national interest." At the same time, Theresa May warned earlier that the sale of British companies to foreign countries would be even more carefully considered by the authorities.

SoftBank 's obligations under the ARM purchase agreement were the first serious test of the new legislative rules introduced by UK Takeover Panel. According to them, the buyer of British assets must from time to time disclose to the regulator detailed data on the activities of acquired companies. In particular, a detailed report should be provided on whether the buyer had fulfilled the promises it had made before entering into the transaction. SoftBank transmitted such a report to UK Takeover Panel.

This progress in fulfilling obligations indicates not only the desire of SoftBank to make ARM one of the world's leading technology companies, but also the support of jobs, research and development in the UK, the SoftBank said.

The sale of ARM was announced a few weeks after the referendum, in which the majority of Britons voted to leave the country from the EU. Critics called the actions SoftBank mercantile and aimed at making money on the fall of the pound after the announcement of Brexit.

In 2017 SoftBank transferred 25% of the stocks ARM in the fund of investment into SoftBank Vision Fund technologies created in Great Britain which volume was $91 billion. The British authorities knew about these SoftBank plans in advance, and apparently they did not have concern about such a deal, the FT notes.

2016

Market Entry for Supercomputing Processors

On August 22, 2016, ARM Holdings announced Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) processor technology, with which the British company plans to master the supercomputer market, challenging Intel and IBM. More details here.

SoftBank buys ARM for $32 billion

On Monday, July 18, the Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank announced the purchase of ARM Holdings for 24.3 billion pounds ($32.2 billion). This is the largest acquisition in the history of SoftBank.

The value of the transaction per ARM share will be £17, which is 40% more than the share price as of July 15, 2016. After the announcement of the sale of the British chipmaker, his quotes jumped 45% to the opening of the London Stock Exchange, as a result of which the company's market capitalization amounted to 7.56 billion pounds.

SoftBank announced the largest acquisition in its history

According to SoftBank, the top management and headquarters of ARM in Cambridge will remain. In addition, it is planned to increase the number of employees of the company in the UK at least twice within five years, reports Reuters.

SoftBank will pay for the acquisition of ARM with its own cash savings and credit funds received from Japanese Mizuho Bank. After the deal closes, ARM shares will be withdrawn from the exchange.

Amir Anvarzadeh, a trader in Asian securities at BGC Partners, believes that the purchase of ARM is beneficial for SoftBank for two reasons. First, the absorbed company has stable cash flows due to the dominance of the mobile processor market, and second, it shows a high margin (about 95% quarterly, starting in late 2014) due to its focus on technology development.

Some smartphone makers may not like the loss of independence of ARM, which until the purchase of the SoftBank belonged mainly to institutional investors, said Roger Sheng, an analyst at Gartdonbass. In his opinion, the Japanese owner may interfere with the expansion of ARM's business in the Chinese market due to political problems between the countries and the active policy of the Middle Kingdom in the development of domestic semiconductor production.^[6]

2014

Customers include more than 40 major electronics manufacturers

For 2014, ARM customers include more than four dozen large electronics manufacturers. Processors based on ARM designs can be found in a variety of devices - from hard drives to cars and from game consoles to photo and video cameras and TVs.

Facebook implements ARM in data centers

Experts follow with interest the growing popularity of multiprocessor server solutions based on ARM (for example, they are actively introduced in Facebook data centers in 2014) and discuss the emergence of 64-bit ARMv8.

2012

Preparing for Server Processor Development

ARM CEO Warren East, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, noted that server hardware manufacturers announced experimental systems with cost-effective ARM processors. However, according to him, until the architecture of the new processor appears and the tools with which you can achieve significant success in the market, it can take several more years. ARM began to conquer the server market in 2008 and at the same time the company management concluded: the road to success will be six years long.

ARM products are used mainly in smartphones and tablets, but server manufacturers show a growing interest in using processors that consume a small amount of energy. The demand for cost-effective processors is due to the need to reduce the cost of building data centers (DPC). At the same time Hewlett-Packard , he conducts research and experimental work using ARM processors and Tegra 3 chips from, Nvidia combining their capabilities for constructionssupercomputer Barcelona.

However, as a newcomer to this market, ARM will have to "move" Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, whose x86 processors dominate the data center. Currently, ARM produces only 32-bit microchips, which, unlike 64-bit processors for the x86 platform, according to East, are at a completely disadvantage for servers. "There are a number of server applications where the software is written on the premise of having a 64-bit processor on the system. ARM today is primarily 32-bit processors, so we have to accept the fact that we cannot implement server loads where a 64-bit chip is supposed, "said East.

In October 2011, ARM introduced its first 64-bit ARMv8 microprocessor architecture. The appearance of prototypes of consumer systems on this chip, as well as equipment for enterprises, is not expected until about 2014. ARMv8 will be addressed to large amounts of memory and storage, which is very important for applications running on servers. "Everything will be. If 10 years ago we said that we were going to enter the server market in 2012, then since we began to create a 64-bit system a little earlier, we will go there soon. You should not worry, it seems to me that this is a normal schedule, "East emphasized.

As ARM strives to gain market share in server processors, Intel has launched its own cost-effective chips to combat ARM in the smartphone and tablet markets. At CES, Intel announced that its Atom processor, codenamed Medfield, will be used in new smartphones from Lenovo and Motorola.

Delivery of over 15 billion ARM microarrays

At the beginning of 2012, more than 15 billion ARM microarrays were delivered. 600 processor licenses sold to more than 200 companies.

2009: Revenue - £305 million

At the end of 2009, the company's revenue amounted to £305 million.

2007: Launch Apple iPhone on ARM processors

However, the development of mobile devices brought the greatest fame to ARM. Apple Newton and Pocket PC set-ups were only a preface to what happened after the release of iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010. The energy intensity of the RISC architecture turned out to be the key to the structure of portable devices, and no matter how much Intel tries to compete with ARM in this field, it has not yet been possible to make a competitive processor for tablets and smartphones based on x86.

1998: Stock offering on the stock exchange, Apple sells its stake in the company

The growth and improvement of the ARM architecture did not stop, and in 1998 the company successfully entered the exchange. Then, by the way, Apple sold its part of the shares: for her it was a year of severe crisis, and the rejection of a stake in ARM helped get out of it. Could Steve Jobs then assume how important ARM products would be to Apple in ten years?

Even at Intel, ARM-based processors were produced at one time (the series was called XScale, but in 2006 it was sold with the division).

1992: Apple Newton Tuner Processor

The first processor, the design of which was released in ARM Holdings after disconnection from Acorn, was the ARM6, designed specifically for the Newton set-up and in collaboration with Apple. The ARM6 specification was first released in 1992, and in 1993 the company announced its first profits.

1990: Foundation of ARM

But the fact that Olivetti abandoned the idea of ​ ​ developing its own computer platform did not mean death at all for ARM. The founder of Acorn Computers, Hauser, found a way to separate the processing business from Olivetti into a separate company and found two interested partners. In 1990, the combined enterprise was named the same as the processor architecture - ARM, but the decryption was changed from Acorn RISC Machines to Advanced RISC Machines.

Who at that time might need a partnership with the RISC processor developer? Obviously, the company producing the devices based on them. It became: Apple in 1990, the future Newton set-up was designed there, processor and ARM was excellent for it due to its economy in relation to the battery charge.

VLSI Technologies was selected as the third partner. This is the direct heiress of the VLSI Project, which was engaged in the design and production of integrated circuits. For the future of the joint venture, it was important that VLSI could provide its own computer-aided design system^[7].

VLSI itself needed a new processor customer. This is a pure embodiment of the idea of ​ ​ Conway and Meade, when the developer and manufacturer of SBIS work separately (and in this case, they are even located on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean). Learned by Acorn's failure, Hauser made another adjustment: instead of producing the product itself, he proposed to exclusively design processors and sell intellectual property - that is, chip designs and licenses for their production.

If Intel is famous for having dozens of factories around the world, ARM has none by 2014. This did not prevent ARM not only from standing in line with Intel and AMD, but also slowly turn into a serious threat to them.

The rapid growth in sales of IBM PC clones in the 1990s did not affect the popularity of RISC in the best way. Where Intel and Microsoft began to fuel, there was virtually no alternative to x86 processors. But there were professional applications: IBM and Sun Microsystems servers and workstations, which use the "risky" PowerPC and SPARC architectures, respectively, as well as the microcontroller market, which has long served as the main revenue item for ARM.

1978-1984: Acorn era

The history of ARM began with the creation of Acorn Computers, which in the 1980s had every chance to take Intel's place in the global processor market.

In 1984, Acorn fell victim to a crisis in the personal computer market and Italian Olivetti acquired 80% of the company. The deal was unsuccessful, as the world began to rule IBM-compatible computers and everything that did not dock with them was doomed to oblivion.

See also

• The "cell PC" revolution or who will benefit from the war between ARM and Intel

Notes