Nvidia made a $40billion (approx £30billion) bid for chip designing giant, Arm, but is rumoured to be looking for an exit strategy due to slow progress.
According to a report by Bloomberg, insiders have suggested that Nvidia “doesn’t expect” its proposed purchase of Arm, designer of microprocessors, to close. Failing to seal the deal would reportedly cost the graphics card turned chip manufacturer $3.25billion (approximately £2.4billion) in deposits and cancellation fees.
A spokesperson for Nvidia, Bob Sherbin, has said that it still hopes to complete the acquisition in a statement. “We continue to hold the views expressed in detail in our latest regulatory filings — that this transaction provides an opportunity to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation.” While a spokesperson for Softbank, which currently owns Arm said “We remain hopeful that the transaction will be approved.”
Despite both companies seemingly eager to complete the deal progress has been slow. This is in part due to how sales of these products are available worldwide and as such have to pass multiple regulatory boards. Large boards such as those from China, the U.S and the European Union have been scrutinising the deal heavily.
Arm designed chips are used in such a wide number of products from mobile phones to cars. As such the vast number of huge tech companies, who rely on the chips Arm designs, would be worried about their access to them, if the company were acquired by Nvidia. Due to this regulators have been strict with the terms of the acquisition.
The cancellation of the deal is speculation at this point, though it seems that it will be a while longer before anything is finalised.
