Apple rumored to buy ARM Holdings
Apple is reportedly interested in acquiring ARM Holdings, the Cambridge England firm that licenses the majority of the world's mobile chip designs.
According to a report by the London Evening Standard, "Apple is ARM's biggest customer and speculation is that the iPad maker wants to take chip design in house."
After noting that shares in ARM had "shot up 8.1p to 251.1p," the report cited a trader as saying, "A deal would make a lot of sense for Apple. That way, they could stop ARM's technology from ending up in everyone else's computers and gadgets.?
The report added "traders reckon a bid would come in at around 400p a share, valuing ARM at more than £5.2 billion [$8 billion US]."
Apple originally founded ARM in a 1990 partnership with UK computer maker Acorn and chip fab VLSI Technologies. At the time, Apple was interested in adapting Acorn's new RISC processor for use as a mobile processor in the company's new Newton Message Pad.
As Apple discontinued the the Newton line in the late 90s, chief executive Steve Jobs began selling Apple's shares of ARM in an effort to balance the company's books. Apple returned to ARM processors with the iPod in 2001, and has consistently used ARM processors ever since in its iPods, recent AirPort wireless base stations, the iPhone, and iPad.
Apple appears to have acquired chip designer Intrinsity in order to accelerate the ARM Cortex A8 to 1GHz speeds. Were Apple to buy ARM, it could leverage a great deal of power over the market for mobile and embedded processors chips, the vast majority of which are based on licensed ARM designs.
Currently, Apple pays royalties for ARM's chip designs used in its products. If the company acquired ARM, it could conceivably raise licensing costs to rivals or even take ARM designs off the market. Competitors to ARM in the mobile arena, including Intel's Atom processor family, are not nearly as power efficient.
Similar to Intrinsity and PA Semi, ARM only licenses its chip designs and technologies to other companies that actually build the chips.
According to a report by the London Evening Standard, "Apple is ARM's biggest customer and speculation is that the iPad maker wants to take chip design in house."
After noting that shares in ARM had "shot up 8.1p to 251.1p," the report cited a trader as saying, "A deal would make a lot of sense for Apple. That way, they could stop ARM's technology from ending up in everyone else's computers and gadgets.?
The report added "traders reckon a bid would come in at around 400p a share, valuing ARM at more than £5.2 billion [$8 billion US]."
Apple originally founded ARM in a 1990 partnership with UK computer maker Acorn and chip fab VLSI Technologies. At the time, Apple was interested in adapting Acorn's new RISC processor for use as a mobile processor in the company's new Newton Message Pad.
As Apple discontinued the the Newton line in the late 90s, chief executive Steve Jobs began selling Apple's shares of ARM in an effort to balance the company's books. Apple returned to ARM processors with the iPod in 2001, and has consistently used ARM processors ever since in its iPods, recent AirPort wireless base stations, the iPhone, and iPad.
Apple appears to have acquired chip designer Intrinsity in order to accelerate the ARM Cortex A8 to 1GHz speeds. Were Apple to buy ARM, it could leverage a great deal of power over the market for mobile and embedded processors chips, the vast majority of which are based on licensed ARM designs.
Currently, Apple pays royalties for ARM's chip designs used in its products. If the company acquired ARM, it could conceivably raise licensing costs to rivals or even take ARM designs off the market. Competitors to ARM in the mobile arena, including Intel's Atom processor family, are not nearly as power efficient.
Similar to Intrinsity and PA Semi, ARM only licenses its chip designs and technologies to other companies that actually build the chips.
Comments
Do It!
Two Words:
Do It!
One word:
Amen!
Holy sh*t! Wouldn't this just shake up the entire mobile industry! Having to license from Apple!
And, even better, having Apple say, "No thanks. These are ours. Get your own."
I ask only that this could make Apple's mobile devices even more cost effective AND allow them to make super secret squirrel processors without the need for external printing factories.
I've said Apple should do this themselves and if this really is the case Apple is going to produce even more amazing things. The best way to ensure everything is perfect is to do it yourself.
If they print their own processors could they also make their own solid state drives?
The potential for something like this is astronomical.
And, even better, having Apple say, "No thanks. These are ours. Get your own."
YES!!!
Question, does ARM actually manufacture the processors themselves?
No, I they're just a IP company, hence the name ARM Holdings.
Unlike other microprocessor corporations such as AMD, Intel, Freescale (formerly Motorola) and Renesas (formerly Hitachi and Mitsubishi),[27] ARM only licenses its technology as intellectual property (IP), rather than manufacturing its own CPUs. Thus, there are a few dozen companies making processors based on ARM's designs. Intel, Freescale and Renesas have all licensed ARM technology. In 2007, 2.9 billion chips based on an ARM design were manufactured.[28]
Question, does ARM actually manufacture the processors themselves?
I ask only that this could make Apple's mobile devices even more cost effective AND allow them to make super secret squirrel processors without the need for external printing factories.
I've said Apple should do this themselves and if this really is the case Apple is going to produce even more amazing things. The best way to ensure everything is perfect is to do it yourself.
If they print their own processors could they also make their own solid state drives?
The potential for something like this is astronomical.
No, they are the holding company. They give the rights to companies to use the tech. Intellectual Properties.
That being said, I can't see how Apple would prevent a PA Semi style outflow of engineers if they acquired ARM? I think it would not be smart of Apple to stop them from selling to competitors (for employee morale, as well as anti-trust reasons). A better idea might be to continue selling designs to 3rd parties, but getting a 3-6 month lead in development time (in the mobile industry this is huge, since its half the life-cycle of a phone).
I think Apple realizes that ARM is "the" platform for mobility going forward and
they are investing heavily themselves. If they are investing themselves then why
not make a little money and influence the design of mobile platforms going forward.
I think this is less about thwarting competition and more about Apple becoming the "Intel" of mobile computing (in dominance)
Intel's not going to have Atom as a viable successor for years if at all but ARM will grow its MP core business to attack Atom in the Netbook class sector.
It behooves Apple to not only maintain current clientele but keep them happy and move forward with improved designs and tools.
Then they could make their own processors as well as ARM processors so then they could make double profits from licensing with this buyout and selling from their own plant. They'd make their money back easily.
I have no doubt that Apple will-- if Apple were to buy ARM, it would be to advance Apple products, not to lock out others or to squelch competition... They don't believe that they have any real competition at what they choose to do.
However, they are savvy enough not to let others put them at a competitive disadvantage by constricting their access to technology...
.
Apple is reportedly interested in acquiring ARM Holdings, the Cambridge England firm that licenses the majority of the world's mobile chip designs.
According to a report by the London Evening Standard, "Apple is ARM's biggest customer and speculation is that the iPad maker wants to take chip design in house."
After noting that shares in ARM had "shot up 8.1p to 251.1p," the report cited a trader as saying, "A deal would make a lot of sense for Apple. That way, they could stop ARM's technology from ending up in everyone else's computers and gadgets.”
Where has this trader been? ARM's technology already is in everyone else's computers and gadgets, at least the pocket sized ones. As such, I don't see this getting past the anti-trust boards, if it even gets that far.
we need to spend some money...how can we make more!
do it.
And, even better, having Apple say, "No thanks. These are ours. Get your own."
that doesn't make a lot of sense. arm is obviously making money from licensing their chip design. it would be a no-brainer to keep that coming in, and i'm sure that their current customers have some pretty air tight contracts. i'm definitely not qualified on the legal implications, but i think that would be the kind of thing that would invite an investigation over anti-competitive behaviour.
anybody more qualified to comment on this?
this seems to me to be more of a strategic move to acquire intellectual property, possibly even to strengthen apple's bargaining position for one of the ongoing ping-pong lawsuits.