By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Softbank (OTC:SFTBY) Group Corp (T:9984) divested its chip division Arm Ltd to Santa Clara-based Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) Corp in a record deal, seeing its shares soar on the back of the news.
Softbank’s Tokyo shares rose as much as 10% and were up 10.26% to JPY6461 ($60.85) by 12:55 AM ET (5:55 AM GMT), reviving talk of the company going private.
The Japanese company looks to rake in $40 billion form the deal, with Nvidia paying $21.5 billion in stock and $12 billion in cash for Arm, inclusive of a $2 billion payment at signing. The deal also grants Softbank an additional $5 billion, either in cash or stock, when Arm’s performance meets certain targets. Arm employees also stand to benefit from $1.5 billion in Nvidia stock.
The sale, which unwinds a strategic investment, will boost Softbank’s liquidity, allowing founder Masayoshi Son to focus on more tactical investing.
However, obtaining regulatory approval could pose a challenge to both companies, with authorities in China, the U.K., the European Union and U.S. all needing to give the green light. Expected to take up to 18 months, the Chinese approval could take longer amid simmering tensions with the U.S. Another concern is whether Arm can continue to count companies such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) as customers, with the acquisition putting the companies in direct competition.
Meanwhile, Cambridge U.K.-based Arm counts the likes of Apple, Intel, Samsung (KS:005930) Electronics (OTC:SSNLF), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Huawei Technologies as licensees. The companies either use Arm designs as the basis of their chips or license the Arm instruction set for their own proprietary products.