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SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings

wsj.com

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Re: SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings

#4

Post by sp527 »

kilerz wrote: post #3
bradhe wrote: post #2

I wonder why? This seems like a really odd time to do this.

They need cash. Arm is one of the best asset that they have.

Exactly this. They’re basically signaling financial distress somewhere else on their balance sheet (one could make an educated guess about where). Arm is a significant growth business and the decision to part with it wouldn’t be taken lightly.

Re: SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings

#5

Post by toomuchtodo »

bradhe wrote: post #2

I wonder why? This seems like a really odd time to do this.

There have been some corporate governance shenanigans going on with ARM as of late.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2020-06-24/money-... (Control-F “Who controls a company?”)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/softbank-arm-fired-china-ceo-...

Re: SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings

#7

Post by singhrac »

Does anyone know the prices that Arm charges for its licenses are set? They occupy such a strangely powerful position in the global chip landscape.

Similarly, how does TSMC set their prices? There don't seem to be any real alternatives for Apple or AMD to switch it, it seems like they could really squeeze them if they wanted to.

Re: SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings

#8

Post by kryptiskt »

singhrac wrote: post #7

Does anyone know the prices that Arm charges for its licenses are set? They occupy such a strangely powerful position in the global chip landscape. Similarly, how does TSMC set their prices? There don't seem to be any real alternatives for Apple or AMD to switch it, it seems like they could really squeeze them if they wanted to.

Samsung is an alternative if you must have the latest process.

Re: SoftBank Explores Sale or IPO for Chip Designer Arm Holdings

#9

Post by ksec »

singhrac wrote: post #7

Does anyone know the prices that Arm charges for its licenses are set? They occupy such a strangely powerful position in the global chip landscape. Similarly, how does TSMC set their prices? There don't seem to be any real alternatives for Apple or AMD to switch it, it seems like they could really squeeze them if they wanted to.

>Does anyone know the prices that Arm charges for its licenses are set?

Depending on licensing type and Cores. Charge as Percentage of selling price or Per Core. But generally the price of ARM license is sort of like a rounding error in grand scheme of things. ARM's total revenue is less than Intel's Profit.

>They occupy such a strangely powerful position in the global chip landscape.

There are ARM architecture license, which effectively allows a company to use specific ARM arch indefinitely for a large upfront cost. ( Apple, Qualcomm etc. )

Anandtech has a few articles on the subject if you are interested.

>how does TSMC set their prices?

Depending on your node, and are priced at Per wafer or per fully functional chip. Again the Wafer Price isn't that expensive. For example it cost Apple less than $25 to produce their A13.

>There don't seem to be any real alternatives for Apple or AMD to switch it,

This actually has little to do with pricing of the Wafer. The Design of your chip isn't transferable to another Foundry without a lot of work. And the design part is EXTREMELY expensive.

>it seems like they could really squeeze them if they wanted to.

Or risk your customers going to Samsung and not coming back for a long time due to lead time in semiconductor's design. Along with empty Fab capacity which they will have to lower price to fill. A lose - lose situation.

SemiWiki and SemiEngineering has a few articles on the subject if you are interested.

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