Insight -- Masayoshi Son, ARM Holdings

I find that this provides insight about how certain people and companies think.

Japan News Masayoshi Son  -- More at the source.

ARM traces its history back to the mid-1980s, when a group of software engineers decided to design their own microprocessor for the Acorn BBC Micro, a device that introduced a generation of British school children to computing.

Muller said the rise of rival computers based on Intel chips dealt Acorn a fatal blow, but despite the failure Apple had seen something it liked in the technology, which it wanted to use in its Newton handheld device.

With Apple’s backing, ARM was spun out of Acorn in 1990.

The Newton failed, but ARM persevered with its designs and was chosen by another company set to become a global leader — Nokia — for a new mobile phone in the mid-1990s.

“Because Nokia was then becoming the No. 1 mobile phone company, other people knew they’d selected ARM to use in mobile phones, and that drove a lot of adoption from other players,” Muller said.

Nokia chose ARM’s processor designs because they required less power than those from rivals, making them ideal for a mobile device powered by a battery.

An early decision to let its customers innovate using ARM’s core technology was key to its success, Muller said, giving partners such as Apple, Samsung or Qualcomm the freedom to develop their own chips while using ARM’s common architecture that had become the industry standard.

The company and analysts had said that partnership model had made ARM less vulnerable to a takeover because an acquisition by the likes of Apple or Intel could put off its other partners.

SoftBank, a telecommunications and internet company with no presence in semiconductors, largely sidesteps that problem.

Huge Acquisition in Telecom

An exceptionally bright guy is buying up interesting areas in telecom and one of them is a PicoP maker.  --- another something to watch. 



Japan's Softbank to acquire ARM holdings?

Japan's Softbank has agreed to acquire ARM Holdings, the giant U.K. semiconductor firm that supplies part of the chip design used in Apple iPhones, in a deal worth more than $32 billion, the companies announced on Monday. 

ARM, the largest London-listed tech company by market value, is a major presence in mobile processing, with its processor and graphics technology used by Samsung, Huawei, and Apple in their in-house microchips.

Components based on technology licensed by ARM are found in the vast majority of the world's smartphones, and the Cambridge-based group has branched into other connected devices as smartphone growth slows.

As part of its bid to bolster its presence in the growing internet of things (IoT) sector, Softbank will pay £17 per share (about $22.50 a share) for ARM, a 43 percent premium on Friday's closing price, in an all-cash deal. ARM shares rallied over 46 percent in early trade on Monday. 

"This is a company I always admired for the last 10 years," Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank, told reporters in London Monday. "This is the company I wanted to make part of Softbank. I am so happy" 

On whether the deal will face opposition, the CEO said the deal will close quickly because Softbank "does not operate any competitive business against ARM. This will be very straightforward"

Connection?   (From this blog)

From February.....

Foxconn seeks investment from SoftBank to boost bid

OSAKA -- Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry reportedly has sounded out SoftBank Group about joining its bid to acquire Sharp, aiming to sweeten the deal by bringing in a Japanese partner and a major buyer of the troubled manufacturer's mainstay smartphones.

     Hon Hai, the contract electronics manufacturer also known as Foxconn, plans to hold a controlling interest in Sharp, with SoftBank seen taking a roughly 10-20% stake. Having SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son himself buy into Sharp directly is likely on the table as well. Foxconn hopes that having the telecom company on board would boost Sharp's smartphone sales, contributing to its recovery.

Asia Nikkei

From Harvard Business Review

If you look at these carefully, you don’t think the skull has the most value. The brain is more valuable than the skull. But everybody has a brain. Inside the brain are wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge are the most valuable things in the body. I want to be number one in the business of supplying wisdom and knowledge all over Japan. But the knowledge industry is too big, too wide. So we specialize in the PC industry’s knowledge.

FORBES -- SPRINT

Sprint , the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, has seen its stock price rise by close to 15% over the last week and by approximately 30% in the last three months, outperforming other large cap wireless names. Below we outline some of the likely reasons for the rally.

• Developments at Sprint’s majority shareholder Softbank have been a key driver of the stock over the last few days. Earlier this week, SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said that he would stay on for another five to ten years, instead of retiring in favor of the company’s president Nikesh Arora. Son noted that one of his key priories in his remaining time would be to develop Sprint to its “true potential,” signaling a vote of confidence in the company.

ARM display processing