Softbank wants to buy ARM: mobile operator reaches for chip designers – Handelsblatt

Softbank store in Tokyo

the Japanese telecom operator wants to take over the chip designer ARM

(Photo: Reuters).

London / Tokyo the chip designer ARM, whose technology is in almost all smartphones and tablets, according to media reports is by the Japanese telecommunications taken -Anbieter Softbank. The purchase price lies at 23.4 billion pounds (almost 28 billion euros), wrote the “Financial Times” early Monday, citing informed people. It is the first big deal to a British company, since the price drop has pushed the value of the company as a result of the Proposed referendum on United Kingdom membership of the European Union-decision.

Softbank would pay 17 pounds per share, a premium of about 43 percent to the closing price of the previous week, reported the “Financial Times” on. The deal could be announced on Monday even before the opening of the London share trading, wrote the “Wall Street Journal”, which named a purchase price at 32 billion dollars. The course of the pound against the yen was strong like, after the British had expressed in the referendum for a withdrawal from the EU. The British currency is now about 30 percent less value than a year ago.

ARM provides the processors ago itself, but creates only the chip architecture, are sold to the then licenses. Processors based on ARM technology work very power efficient. This has secured them a place in the vast majority of smartphones and tablets.

The largest chipmaker in the world

• with a turnover of around $ 50 billion Intel is by far the largest chipmaker in the world. For nearly a quarter century, Intel leads the ranking now already. The group from the Silicon Valley lives mainly of its processors. They are the brain of every computer. The semiconductor company stuck especially in PCs, notebooks and servers. In the business with smartphones Intel could never really gain a foothold. All in all, achieved Intel in the semiconductor market accounted for more than 15 percent.

• the chip division of the Korean electronics giant is to Intel the world’s number two and get the experts from Gartner to more than eleven percent market share. The Asians are particularly strong in memory chips. Samsung adds, among other things Apple. Semiconductors are of course only one of many Business of Samsung Electronics. The Koreans also supply many other electronic components as well as washing machines, smart phones, televisions and even refrigerators and vacuum cleaners.

• The second major South Korean semiconductor company SK Hynix’s and is located in the world rankings at number three. Sales: more than 16 billion dollars. SK Hynix in particular produces memory chips and was supported in the past by the state in order to avert bankruptcy. As one of the very few major chip companies SK Hynix has grown, 2015.

• in the public Qualcomm be virtually unknown, but in the semiconductor industry are Californians number four with last around 16 billion dollar sales. The company mainly supplies chips for smartphones. So strong Qualcomm is in this field that the group repeated the cartel office had problems. The Company does not own factories but can make all his chips in the so-called foundries. In addition, Qualcomm earned in royalties because every phone manufacturer has to rely on the intellectual property of Americans. However, 2015 was not a good year for Qualcomm, the revenue is strong like. With a slump of one third of it was also on the floor anything around.

• the US company is working closely with Intel together and is ranked five sales ranking in the semiconductor industry. Last global revenues totaling 14.5 billion dollars. Micron mainly sells memory chips. Together with Intel hopes Micron currently on a whole new generation of memory chips. The new chips will be 1000 times faster than the currently used NAND memory chips. At the same time advanced semiconductors can ten times more data than the conventional sum memory, the so-called DRAMs. In contrast to the DRAM chips, and similar to NAND, the information in the new technology is not lost when power goes off. NAND has supplanted in recent years in many computers, the hard disks and is now perhaps even replaced by the new technology. Intel and Micron have the new technology called 3D Xpoint.

• Many people are of US concern primarily because of the calculator a term , Here Texas Instruments lives mainly of chips and is considered one of the most reliable and most profitable provider for decades. Turnover stood at just over eleven billion dollars, thus ranking the company ranked sixth in the world rankings.

• the biggest Japanese chipmaker recently came on revenues of 8.5 billion dollars, which is enough for seventh place in the world rankings. The market share of almost three percent.

• the US company is the major competitors of Qualcomm in business with mobile phone chips and is ranked eight of the largest semiconductor manufacturers. However, there will be no more long Broadcom. Arvago swallows the competitors straight and are for the record sum of 37 billion from. So much has never been placed in industry for a takeover on the table.

• So far, the largest European semiconductor manufacturer, but this position is the Group retained = “panel-body” readability = “34.5″>

• the most important German chip producer and the only manufacturer in this country. in the top ten in the sector Munich are 2015 grown by around a third, mainly due to the acquisition of US rival International Rectifier. Also on the stock exchange it was last year, gorgeous, with a gain of 50 percent belonged to the former Siemens division among the biggest gainers in the DAX. Infineon will probably lose its place among the ten largest manufacturers soon, because the Dutch competitor NXP has the American rival Freescale recently swallowed.

  Author: Joachim Hofer

The chip giant Intel which dominated the business with processors for PCs, never managed to break the hegemony of ARM in the mobile devices. There were very few smartphones with Intel chips, the US company was able to secure a small niche only Tablets

Apple, for example, designs for years its own chips for its iPhones and iPads -. But they are also based on ARM technology. In addition, it is speculated for years, the company can also change its Mac computers from the currently used Intel processors based on ARM architecture.

ARM recently announced new processors designs, among other small networked technology using the Internet of things. That could be especially interesting for Softbank: Telecom companies worldwide are trying to reinvent itself as a service provider for connected devices of all kinds. Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & amp; Strategy anticipates the same time so that Softbank could try to increase royalties across the board. The Japanese company also includes the US telecommunications operator Sprint, which takes a lot of money in the fierce competition.