Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is expected to meet with SoftBank Chairman Son Jeong-eui next month to discuss the acquisition of Arm, a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England.
Founded in the UK in 1990, Arm creates and provides architectures, which are basic semiconductor designs, to more than 1,000 companies around the world, including Samsung Electronics, Apple, Qualcomm, Apple, and Huawei.
Arm can make small and efficient processors compared to Intel's heavy and power-hungry architecture, so more than 90% of low-power smartphones and 85% of tablet PCs use an application processor (AP) designed by Arm.
Arm's major shareholder, Softbank chairman Sohn, once attempted an initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ after the sale of Nvidia failed. However, recently, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Intel, and Qualcomm have shown their intention to take over, and have turned to the direction of selling again.
“I did not meet Arm executives on a business trip to the UK, but Chairman Son, the major shareholder of Arm, will visit Seoul next month to meet," said Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee, who returned to Korea from overseas business trips in Latin America and the UK on September 21. "I think Chairman Son is expected to make an offer in relation to the acquisition of Arm.”
This is the first time that Samsung Electronics has revealed a specific schedule for the acquisition of Arm. If Samsung Electronics succeeds in acquiring Arm, a large-scale M&A will take place six years after it acquired Harman International, a company specializing in electronics and audio.
Unlike the memory semiconductor field, which has the world's best technology, Samsung Electronics is evaluated as a latecomer in the processor field such as the central processing unit (CPU).
The market is in strong demand for a low-power processor that can improve energy efficiency while processing big data such as 5G and AI.
"If Samsung Electronics secures Arm's semiconductor design technology through M&A, it is expected to be one step closer to the goal of 'No. 1 in 2030 system semiconductors'", said a Samsung Electronics official.
