SoftBank set to buy ARM Holdings for $32 billion

The Dollar Business Bureau

Japan's SoftBank has announced it will buy ARM Holdings, Britain-based designer of microprocessors that power over 95% of the world’s smartphones, for $32 billion.

The decision comes barely weeks after Brexit unfolded, a phenomenon which sent the global financial markets crashing down and Pounds crashing over 10% against the dollar.

But, Masayoshi Son-led telecoms and internet giant denied that the latest deal was an opportunistic transaction.

SoftBank’s CEO said he had been keeping a tab of ARM Holdings for over ten years and identified that the current scenarios presented the best opportunity to make an investment in a company that provides its micro-processing technology to nearly all the smartphone makers including Apple and Samsung.

"ARM will be the center of the Internet of Things, in which everything will be connected," Son said. "IoT is going to be the biggest paradigm shift in human history (and) we have always invested at the beginning of every paradigm shift."

Softbank’s ARM deal is one of Japan's largest overseas ventures in recent times and the latest in a quest of Japanese companies to seek growth abroad in the backdrop of a stagnant domestic economy.

For UK, the current capital investment by the Japanese internet major is big enough to cover the country’s quarterly current account deficit.

The deal also marks SoftBank's biggest takeover till date. Its current tech and telecom portfolios include US carrier Sprint, stakes in Alibaba and 'Pepper'.

This marks the first occasion when SoftBank has expanded its presence in the semi-conductor industry.