NVIDIA-ARM Acquisition Facing Delays, Still Pending Regulatory Approvals

[Raevenlord]

The NVIDIA acquisition of ARM from the clutches of Softbank (for a cool, $40 billion) is increasingly looking stretched towards the future. When the acquisition deal was first announced back in September 14th, 2020, NVIDIA announced it expected the business to be closed within an 18-month timeframe, which would place it towards March 2022. However, that objective may prove to have been set too aggressively; we're now in July, and NVIDIA still hasn't received any sort of regulatory approval towards its embattled, and mostly negatively received, plans for the acquisition of ARM.

Particularly here is NVIDIA's submission of the acquisition deal towards the European Commission - which still hasn't happened. Seeking regulatory approval on acquisitions usually is a bureaucratic minefield; even more so when we're talking about tech industry giants such as NVIDIA and ARM and the possibility of market monopolization. It's expected that any regulatory appraisal of the acquisition will take upwards of six months, considering the scope, scale, and legal hurdles involved, and with the European Commission's summer holidays starting today, NVIDIA will now only be able to submit acquisition documentation come September. That gives the European Commission only six months to evaluate an acquisition of this magnitude if NVIDIA were to complete the deal in its announced timeframe; regulators, however, usually aren't too interested in bending over backwards to accelerate timeframes just because of a company's interest, even if that company is NVIDIA. Should the acquisition go wayside or be delayed far too long for ARM's interests, the company is expected to opt for an IPO so as to raise investment.



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[john_]

Nvidia needs to come out and accept in public to sign with about everyone a contract where it will warranty that it will NOT keeping the best tech for it's SOCs. That everything it creates will be immediately available to everyone for a license fee that will be fair and probably at the levels ARM charges.
But we are talking about Nvidia and probably what I am saying above is a fairy tale. Of course Nvidia will want to keep the best tech for it's SOCs while selling licences for second class tech to others for a ridiculous high amount of money.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Fingers crossed this fails. This is not going to be good for anyone except Nvidia.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Fingers crossed this fails. This is not going to be good for anyone except Nvidia.

Agreed, in any sane world, this shouldn't be allowed to happen....i honestly have zero faith in American regulators to prevent it, but I'm hoping that European regulators will...

 

[Richards]

I trust jensen he said it will go through... it will save pc gaming from the x86 oligarchs intel and amd

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Nvidia needs to come out and accept in public to sign with about everyone a contract where it will warranty that it will NOT keeping the best tech for it's SOCs. That everything it creates will be immediately available to everyone for a license fee that will be fair and probably at the levels ARM charges.
But we are talking about Nvidia and probably what I am saying above is a fairy tale. Of course Nvidia will want to keep the best tech for it's SOCs while selling licences for second class tech to others for a ridiculous high amount of money.

Yeah, quite literally the ONLY thing that dictates a corporate entity's actions is whether it's profitable or not, down to breaking the law.... If it's more profitable to break the law and pay the fine, that is what will be done. Morals, values, etc have no presence in a vost/profit analysis.

 

[dj-electric]

I trust jensen he said it will go through... it will save pc gaming from the x86 oligarchs intel and amd

Saving a soul while destroying a city. Not something people should wish for.
You don't have to buy ARM to develop ARM products.

 

[bencrutz]

Saving a soul while destroying a city. Not something people should wish for.
You don't have to buy ARM to develop ARM products.

yep, pretty much this.

and not to mention MS start to embracing arm with win 11, so....

 

[Ravenas]

I predict ARM opts for IPO.

I trust jensen he said it will go through... it will save pc gaming from the x86 oligarchs intel and amd

What's to save?

 

[Xajel]

I really hope it will fail..

Like how I hope Intel purchase of SiFive will also fail.

I don't trust either with these two. Even though intel buying SiFive is less awful than NV-ARM deal.

ARM licensing model still allows NV to do whatever they want, exactly like how Apple is doing.

I trust jensen he said it will go through... it will save pc gaming from the x86 oligarchs intel and amd

NV doesn't need to buy ARM to do that, ARM licensing model allows them to develop whatever they want, it's how Apple is doing it without the need to buy ARM and Apple is larger than NV (And I would not like Apple to do it also).

NV previous strategies is just not good for the ARM concept. They will most probably change things sooner or later, will do some dirty tricks behind the scenes.

 

[Richards]

I really hope it will fail..

Like how I hope Intel purchase of SiFive will also fail.

I don't trust either with these two. Even though intel buying SiFive is less awful than NV-ARM deal.

ARM licensing model still allows NV to do whatever they want, exactly like how Apple is doing.



NV doesn't need to buy ARM to do that, ARM licensing model allows them to develop whatever they want, it's how Apple is doing it without the need to buy ARM and Apple is larger than NV (And I would not like Apple to do it also).

NV previous strategies is just not good for the ARM concept. They will most probably change things sooner or later, will do some dirty tricks behind the scenes.

Myth.. arm+ nvidia will happen nvidia will bribe these no ethics politicians

I predict ARM opts for IPO.



What's to save?

Innovation and quality.. because amd doesn't innovate they copy

 

[Fouquin]

Myth.. arm+ nvidia will happen nvidia will bribe these no ethics politicians


Innovation and quality.. because amd doesn't innovate they copy

The decades of patents attributed to AMD's R&D teams begs to differ.

But I get that you're just flame baiting, not actually taking a stance here. Just as it is in every article about these big companies that have formed their own tribal communities of consumers.

 

[Fiendish]

I trust jensen he said it will go through... it will save pc gaming from the x86 oligarchs intel and amd

Arm doesn't need a Nvidia ownership to accomplish the goal of moving PC gaming away from x86. I think Qualcomm's suggestion of having a consortium of invested companies would likely achieve the same goal and would be a far better outcome for consumers and it's not like Nvidia would pass on investing in Arm in that scenario, so they would still be part of the overall effort.

 

[mtcn77]

The only time I am 100% certain the person insulting me was a shill was when I said Jetson cannot fight with Arm chips because it had a 15w tdp over at OCN.
Now, I am generally opposed to Nvidia, but they either have to be more public friendly, or be more plain and not super conceited.
I just want the same from Intel as I did from Nvidia: a Qualcomm grade performance...
Think what will happen for a second, this happened nearly a decade back.

Yeah, quite literally the ONLY thing that dictates a corporate entity's actions is whether it's profitable or not, down to breaking the law.... If it's more profitable to break the law and pay the fine, that is what will be done. Morals, values, etc have no presence in a vost/profit analysis.

Yeah, and the public to buy your product. It better be good...

PS: also, if this deal fails it is not Arm that is on the line, it is its parent company - Softbank. Who hit a hard rock, not Arm...

 

[watzupken]

I trust jensen he said it will go through... it will save pc gaming from the x86 oligarchs intel and amd

Save? More like adding Nvidia to the oligarchs.

Personally, I feel Nvidia's biggest hurdle will be the Chinese regulator. Having ARM as part of a US firm is a no go for them.

 

[mtcn77]

Personally, I feel Nvidia's biggest hurdle will be the Chinese regulator. Having ARM as part of a US firm is a no go for them.

Arm already has a Chinese problem, the China branch isn't responding accordingly to company directives. The company couldn't fire the guy in charge there, so it is interesting what they will do with this deal.