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NVIDIA about to give up on buying ARM?
A transaction of more than $ 40 billion that made the emergence of a giant with outsized ambitions.
Remember, back in September 2020, we echoed the incredible news coming from NVIDIA. The graphics card giant was ready to put $40 billion on the table to acquire the British company ARM. The latter was already no longer independent: four years earlier, in July 2016, it was Japan's Softbank that had offered it for $ 31 billion. In the meantime, however, the synergies hoped for by the Japanese company did not visibly take place and Softbank was looking to sell for some time.
The transaction seemed to satisfy the main players. On the one hand, it allowed NVIDIA to diversify its activities by getting its hands on a fast-growing player, and on the other hand, it offered a more than honorable way out for Softbank, which could even put forward a $9 billion capital gain when it seemed to be unsure of what to do with its subsidiary. However, NVIDIA's announcement was quickly met with strong opposition. In fact, many industry players who are more or less competitors of NVIDIA found fault with it: Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm were among the most vehement, but the "coup de grâce" was undoubtedly delivered by multiple regulatory bodies.
European, British and American institutions all seemed to take a dim view of the emergence of such a giant. No official announcement was made by these institutions, but several reports and leaks were clearly not in the direction of authorizing this takeover by NVIDIA. Even before the decision of these organizations, the American company would have finally decided to throw in the towel and if we are waiting for the official confirmation of NVIDIA, the journalists of Bloomberg seem sure of their fact.
Indeed, Bloomberg states that " NVIDIA is preparing to quietly abandon its purchase of ARM Ltd. from Softbank Group Corp. after making little or no progress in obtaining the approvals needed for the $40 billion deal." Bloomberg did not cite any sources, but spoke of " people close to the matter." A cancellation that would not be free for NVIDIA, which would have to pay $1.25 billion in compensation for the breakdown of negotiations. Bloomberg's reporters point out that " NVIDIA and ARM executives are still pleading their case with regul ators". If the matter seems compromised, we are not immune to a new turn of events.