Cambridge tech company Arm sale blocked on national security grounds
The Culture Secretary has intervened in the £29.4 billion deal
Updated
Arm s headquarters on Fulbourn Road, Cambridge (Image: Yesme@)
Sign up to our newsletter for daily updates and breaking newsInvalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Sign up here!
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Your information will be used in accordance with ourPrivacy Notice.
Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice
The sale of one of Cambridge’s biggest technology companies is being blocked by the government on the grounds of national security.
Dialog takeover is a disaster for Europe says Arm pioneer
Hermann Hauser said Dialog had developed world leading technology that should be kept in Europe
Hermann Hauser is a founder of Acorn, the business which created the Arm technology
Credit: Chris Williamson
A Japanese takeover of Reading-based Dialog Semiconductor has been branded a disaster for Europe by Arm pioneer Hermann Hauser.
Chip designer Dialog announced earlier this week that it had agreed to a €4.9bn (£4.3bn) takeover by Renesas Electronics, a Tokyo-based company which is among the largest suppliers of automotive chips.
Hermann Hauser, the founder of Acorn whose technology was spun out to create Arm and a venture partner at Amadeus Capital Partners, said Dialog had developed world leading technology.
Digital Drive: Pandemic reveals Cambridgeshire s deep deprivation divide
Around 8,000 school children do not have access to suitable tech to help them learn from home, meaning they risk falling behind their more fortunate peers
Updated (Image: Cambridge News)
Sign up to our newsletter for daily updates and breaking newsInvalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Sign up here!
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Share
As a first step, it is terrific that the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) is to probe whether the deal threatens competition in chip design.
The Arm model of licensing software for chips rests on open access. Nvidia has a narrower distribution model, which gives exclusive access to its chips and technology to a chosen cluster of customers.
The CMA will be looking at whether the transaction would lead Arm to withdraw from some markets, raise prices or damage the intellectual property.
The enterprise’s co-founder Hermann Hauser argues the Nvidia deal ‘would destroy Arm’s business model as the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry’.