There's ARM less then.

[zeitghost]

ARM chip designer to be bought by Japan's Softbank - BBC News

And the last bit of silver gets sold off.

For dear old Freako, this relates to the sale of ARM Holdings to the Japanese.

[DimPrawn]

Yep, leach all the IP and know-how to Japan, then close down in a few years time.

[NigelJK]

Apparently HQ still in Cambridge, same staff and management. Will double in size in the next couple of years. They expect the 'internet of things' to be huge and ARM are world leaders. I'm hoping for the best they have apparently bought well before now.

[SunnyInHades]

Apparently HQ still in Cambridge, same staff and management. Will double in size in the next couple of years. They expect the 'internet of things' to be huge and ARM are world leaders. I'm hoping for the best they have apparently bought well before now.

Yes but there's a new daddy in charge now.

Hermann Hauser @hermannhauser 2 hours ago
ARM is the proudest achievement of my life. The proposed sale to SoftBank is a sad day for me and for technology in Britain.
"Hauser (aka 'the Austrian' on 'Micro Men') is probably most well known for his part in setting up Acorn Computers with Chris Curry in 1978"

[AtW]

Oh wait, but May said something along the lines that British firms should be protected from takeovers like this???

[_V_]

Certain key technology/science companies should have "preservation" order on them like important trees.

[AtW]

Certain key technology/science companies should have "preservation" order on them like important trees.

They'll relocate then - UK's tax system encourages sale of the company (10-20% CGT) rather than keeping it running (38% dividend tax rate on top of 20% corp tax).

[darmstadt]

The thing is, ARM don't actually make very much. They invent really rather excellent tulip and then just license it for a lot of money, good for them...The interesting thing that hasn't been reported on is how many employees does ARM have in the UK? They currently have 4,064 employees on their books worldwide and Softbank have said they will double the amount in the UK, but if there are only 200 employees in the UK, that's not really a lot of jobs (*). With luck there are a lot more than 200...


(' and they'll have to be British unless they earn more than GBP35,000)

[VectraMan]

3,000 I heard on the news which surprised me as I thought it was more like 250.

The value of ARM is obviously the IP but also the expertise of the UK based staff so clearly they won't be moving those jobs to Japan. This is a bit of a non story. Who owned it before? Do we know?

[scooterscot]

A non-story like when the mini brand was sold to BMW?