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ARM London IPO reportedly put on hold by SoftBank

As the United Kingdom goes through political upheaval, ARM parent company SoftBank has chosen to put an initial public offering on hold.

TJ Denzer

July 19, 2022 8:25 AM

Reuters

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ARM is easily one of the most notable chip architecture designers and fabricators in the world at the moment with various designs in numerous popular products built upon ARM designs. The company has been in talks for an initial public offering after a previous merger failed, but it seems even this won’t go through yet. Due to issues with political shifts in the United Kingdom where ARM is based, parent company SoftBank has decided to postpone an IPO.

News of ARM’s postponed IPO was announced in a report by the Financial Times, posted on July 18, 2022. According to the Financial Times, now-former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had heavily lobbied for SoftBank billionaire founder Masayoshi Son to list ARM on the London Stock Exchange. However, Johnson has since resigned from his position, as had many ministers the Financial Times claimed were integral to the talks with SoftBank on an ARM IPO. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, this caused SoftBank to put any talks or decisions on hold.

SoftBank has been through the ringer with financial decisions regarding ARM over the last few years. In 2020, SoftBank was set to sell ARM to NVIDIA for $40 billion USD. However, the deal collapsed when UK business and competition regulators determined that NVIDIA owning ARM would give the hardware designer too much power in the tech industry. After the deal failed, SoftBank then pursued the possibility of an initial public offering, teasing its IPO ambitions back in February 2022. At the time, Masayoshi Son suggested the company would seek a listing on the NASDAQ in US markets, but Johnson pushed for at least a partial listing on the London Stock Exchange.

With Boris Johnson and many of his supporters out of the picture in the United Kingdom, it looks like an ARM IPO in London is looking a little cloudy. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for further updates.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.