Softbank-ARM deal under attack

Cost an arm and a leg

A major investor in technology in the UK has lashed out against the sale of ARM to Softbank last year.

James Anderson took aim at the ex-chairman of ARM, Stuart Chambers, of selling out to people wanting to make a quick buck out of the sale.

Anderson said Chambers had failed to support long term ARM shareholders that wanted to keep the Cambridge UK chip firm independent.

Chambers defended himself in the Times of London today by claiming that the money from the Japanese giant proved a temptation that the shareholders couldn’t resist.
He said that 90 percent of the shareholders voted with their wallets after three offers were made for ARM by Softbank.

The third and final deal closed at $ 24 billion.

Softbank has strong ambitions for the ARM wing of the company.  which is now headed up by Simon Segars (pictured), who has a seat on the Japanese firm’s board. He became CEO of ARM in 2013.

Indeed Softbank has very strong ambitions indeed. Last week, according to Reuters, it now wants to take over “taxi” firm Uber.

Nothing this week has emerged to reinforce the story, revealed by anonymous sources.

Anonymous sources often have their own axe to grind, but on the other hand as long as they’re unnamed, are happy to leak information to journalists that listen.