Softbank-Owned Arm Mulls Chips Tie-Up Talks With Samsung

SoftBank Group Corp. said Thursday it will hold talks with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. on a possible strategic tie-up over Arm Ltd., a British chip designer under the Japanese technology conglomerate, to accelerate its smartphone chip business. Kyodo News reported.

Photo Insert: The talks on a potential alliance follow SoftBank's announcement in February that it was terminating a deal to sell Arm to US semiconductor maker Nvidia Corp.

SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said he will visit South Korea to hold discussions with Samsung, a major manufacturer of smartphones, displays, chips and batteries.

"I'm excited to visit South Korea for the first time in three years," Son said in a statement.

"I hope to talk with Samsung about a strategic tie-up over Arm." Arm, the world's leading chip designer, has been delivering strong results with a high market share for smartphone chips.

SoftBank acquired Arm in 2016 for $31 billion, betting on business opportunities in the field of the internet of things as the world becomes increasingly connected.

The talks on a potential alliance follow SoftBank's announcement in February that it was terminating a deal to sell Arm to US semiconductor maker Nvidia Corp. for up to $40 billion due to regulatory hurdles.

Authorities in the US and Europe raised a red flag, weighing the potential impact on competition in the semiconductor industry. Britain also expressed concerns over implications for national security.

Softbank said at the time it would start preparing for a public offering of the Cambridge-based firm, eyeing the US Nasdaq market as an option. SoftBank posted a record net loss of 3.16 trillion yen ($22 billion) in the April-June quarter, the largest quarterly loss ever for a Japanese company.

Its poor performance was mainly due to hefty losses at its venture capital Vision Fund amid a worldwide market slump, Mainichi Japan also reported.

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