SoftBank Said to Near a Deal to Sell British Chip Designer Arm

Should the two sides strike a deal for Arm, it would net billions for SoftBank as it seeks to sell assets as part of a business turnaround. It had paid $32 billion for Arm in 2016, as an audacious bet by its chief, Masayoshi Son, on a global rise in internet-connected devices.

In announcing that deal, Mr. Son described the so-called internet of things as shaping up to be “the biggest paradigm shift in human history.” That opportunity made the steep price tag — which was 43 percent higher than where Arm had traded the week before the deal — worth it, in SoftBank’s eyes.

The deal, and its ambitions, were par for the course for Mr. Son, who months later unveiled SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund, which was tasked with buying stakes in promising start-ups across the tech landscape, from Uber to WeWork to a company that used robots to make pizzas.

But those bets have not quite played out the way he has expected.

The Vision Fund later drew criticism for paying top dollar for sometimes questionable start-ups, contributing to a nearly $13 billion annual loss for SoftBank in the fiscal year that ended March 31. (The conglomerate said that the Vision fund has since returned to profitability as of June.)

And Arm has not quite turned out to be the home run that SoftBank had expected, with relatively stagnant sales growth and an inability to take a significant share in the internet-of-things market.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/business/dealbook/softbank-arm-nvidia-computer-chips-sale.html