Cambridge Staff 'Fobbed Off' At Meeting Over ARM Sale To Nvidia, Says Union (theguardian.com) 76
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Opposition to the $40 billion sale of the UK's largest tech firm, Arm Holdings, is mounting, as the trade union Unite said staff concerned about their future had been "fobbed off" and the company's local MP urged the government to act. The government has so far declined to say whether it will consider deploying powers to block the deal or attach conditions, despite pressure from Labour, trade unions and Arm's outspoken co-founder Hermann Hauser.
On Tuesday, Unite said members who worked for Arm at its Cambridge headquarters had been kept in the dark and fobbed off in an internal meeting, with senior figures telling them any transaction was at least 18 months away. Unite called on the government to prevent the sale, saying ministers should be "protecting tech firms from being hollowed out by detrimental takeovers and providing the investment needed for the sector as a whole to flourish." Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP whose constituency includes Arm's headquarters, will meet union officials and employees on Friday. Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he called on the government to secure a legally binding guarantee to protect jobs as well as an exemption from US foreign investment rules. On Monday, ARM co-founder Hermann Hauser penned an open letter to the UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson in which he says that he is "extremely concerned" about the deal and how it will impact jobs in the country, Arm's business model and the future of the country's economic sovereignty independent of the U.S. and U.S. interests.
A spokesperson for Arm said: "Communication sessions have been ongoing with employees at a global, regional and departmental level since the deal was made public. Together, [Arm CEO] Simon Segars and [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang held multiple interactive communications sessions with Arm employees, providing them with the highest levels of transparency within the legal constraints of the situation. It was also clearly communicated that the regulatory process does not have a specific timetable and employees will be kept informed as we get more information relating to the initial estimate of 18 months."
On Tuesday, Unite said members who worked for Arm at its Cambridge headquarters had been kept in the dark and fobbed off in an internal meeting, with senior figures telling them any transaction was at least 18 months away. Unite called on the government to prevent the sale, saying ministers should be "protecting tech firms from being hollowed out by detrimental takeovers and providing the investment needed for the sector as a whole to flourish." Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP whose constituency includes Arm's headquarters, will meet union officials and employees on Friday. Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he called on the government to secure a legally binding guarantee to protect jobs as well as an exemption from US foreign investment rules. On Monday, ARM co-founder Hermann Hauser penned an open letter to the UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson in which he says that he is "extremely concerned" about the deal and how it will impact jobs in the country, Arm's business model and the future of the country's economic sovereignty independent of the U.S. and U.S. interests.
A spokesperson for Arm said: "Communication sessions have been ongoing with employees at a global, regional and departmental level since the deal was made public. Together, [Arm CEO] Simon Segars and [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang held multiple interactive communications sessions with Arm employees, providing them with the highest levels of transparency within the legal constraints of the situation. It was also clearly communicated that the regulatory process does not have a specific timetable and employees will be kept informed as we get more information relating to the initial estimate of 18 months."
Brexit (Score:1)
Re:Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
So in reply to a post only saying the British government is doing nothing, you conclude that the EU is evil... Well this is why everyone vaguely sane thinks most Brexiteers are morons.
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The post you replied to referred only to the British government. For you to conclude anything about the EU from that just reinforcesmy point yet again about how most Brexiteers are morons.
Not all of course, some are people who think they can profit from it and don't care about the consequences to other people.
Re:Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
That isn't the EU's sentiment at all (insofar as a member group with 27 members has a sentiment).
The sentiment is simply: you are no longer a member of our golf club, so you don't get to play on our greens without paying the non-member fees.
And the biggest "green" is the single market (ironically invented by Thatcher). If we want tariff-free access we play by their rules. Simple and perfectly normal.
Re:Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand the sentiment from the rest of the EU. Like oh Britain is gone can't wait to fuck them over on trade deals! Such a swell group of people, can't imagine why they want to leave.
That's what every country does. If you think the USA is going to give the UK a fair deal because of the special relationship, then you are delusional. NZ has been trying to get a trade deal with our close buddies the USA for decades, and it has gone nowhere because a bunch of yokel farmers in their massively state subsidised dairy industry don't want to compete with the blip that is NZ agricultural output. Oh and they hate that we have a centralised buying agency to keep medicine costs down.
Even the Australians, our 'cousins' keep coming up with new reasons to block the sale of our apples because, despite the free trade deal we have, their apple industry doesn't want to have to compete with us.
This is just how things go. This idea that all the countries around the world are chomping at the bit to do free trade is utterly delusional. You can certainly make progress in that direction, but it takes decades, lots of horse trading, and ultimately, if a big trade block goes all protectionist (e.g. Trump) there isn't anything a smaller nation can really do (but go to the WTO and grovel).
I don't think the UK was necessarily as stupid as people make out for leaving the EU. The EU has a lot of problems. But as a trading bloc it is very successful, and the UK will have to get used to this sort of 'outrageous behaviour' because it's how things work out in the big wide world (which ironically NZ got thrown into against it's will by the UK joining the EU and ditching us).
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Simple for anyone with half a brain (doesn't include the Tory party, apparently): The EU doesn't want an example of a country leaving and being successful. It might encourage other countries to consider leaving the EU.
The idea that the UK would get a good trade deal with the EU always was delusional thinking.
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Any deal is based on the cards each party is holding and who needs what from who. While the UK does have access to the common wealth, the UK for the most part is a lone player trying to negotiate with a far larger block.
If the UK gets a poor deal, then it is because it thought it was better than the other countries and was sexier then it was. In the end it is no longer an empire and holds a smaller hand that it thinks it does.
If anyone screwed the UK is was it’s leaders and the short sighted attitude
Re: Brexit (Score:2)
So give me a believable reason why the EU isn't prepared to contemplate a trade deal similar to the one with Canada?
Are you just making stuff up? The UK does not want this and the current government will lose the next election if they tried.
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Because the UK doesn't want a Canada deal. It doesn't include financial services which are a big part of the UK economy. Also the UK shares a border with the EU so a customs arrangement is going to be rather more complicated.
The Internal Market bill that just past is specifically so that the government can break the Withdrawal Agreement by giving state aid to British companies. The bargain basement economy threat has been made several times, and the last 10 years of austerity already drove wages down. The w
What happens to Nth Ireland? (Score:2)
Wall within Ireland?
Wall in the Irish Sea? In which case does Nth Ireland become a separate country within the EU?
The UK government cannot choose either option. So they will just procrastinate.
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The UK government already agreed to a border down the Irish sea. Boris Johnson's signature is right there on the Withdrawal Agreement where it says there will be a new border in the Irish Sea. It was his plan, he revived it after May rejected it outright and sold it as a great, oven-ready deal and went to the electorate on that basis.
Rather bizarre that he now thinks it's a terrible deal and a plot by the EU to break up the UK. If anyone is causing the UK to break up it's him.
Re: Brexit (Score:2)
Financial services haven't been part of any discussion. The City of London has been screaming blue murder because the government hasn't seemed to be supporting them. Meanwhile the EU clearly stated that no trade deal has ever covered financial services, so it's not possible for the UK to have one. Of course that's bullshit and the opposite of ambitious, but sums up the the way the EU has consistently tried to drive things in their own direction. Countries like France sending trade teams to London to try
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You are wrong but let's say for the sake of argument you are right.
Don't we look like a bunch of fucking idiots? It was obvious this was going to happen if we left. What did brexiters think would happen?
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I don't know why this comment is labeled "Flamebait". Whether you agree with it or not, it's a perfectly reasonable analysis of the UK/EU situation.
Somebody with mod points is being a jackass.
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Brexiteer idiots. It's all going wrong but they are so heavily invested in brexit and in Boris Johnson now they can't accept what they have done.
The UK will break up. Scotland will leave, probably NI as well. This is the end for our country, what emerges will be something very different, much diminished, and they are responsible. It makes them angry and scared, and this is how they lash out.
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No doubt you're right. I have been hearing a lot about this through family connections. I'm actually shocked Scotland is still hanging around. Phrases like "time of great opportunity", are being heard, though not publicly, for the most part.
Re: Brexit (Score:1)
How did they protect Nokia?
Oh right.
Fuck the EU
Re: (Score:2)
You are going to have to provide a bit more information than that to make sense. One understands that you have antipathy towards the EU and that it has something to do with Nokia (who for all intents and purposes no longer exist). Other than that who knows what you meant to say other than you have lots of hatred and few brain cells.
I don't get it... (Score:2, Flamebait)
ARM already is NOT a British company, it was sold off to the Japanese.
This is just a Japanese company selling to a US company.
The time to get all upset about this, was when it was sold to the Japan company long ago.
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ARM is a British company that has been under the ownership of Softbank for the last 4 years. It wasn't integrated into Softbank, the HQ is based in the UK, and the whole operation is run from the British HQ.
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Simon Segars is a Brit, and last I heard spends his time split between SV and Cambridge where ARM HQ is. I guess that's inevitable since a lot of the tech industry is based around the Bay Area.
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I agree, ARM got sold off to the highest bidder many years ago. I am only suprised that it still exists in a large enough chunk for it to be sold on for a second time. Most companies that get sold in this arena get their patents removed and the remains sold for scrap.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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It isn't particularlly vaiuable. It is in the international IT world a relatively small business with no major money makers, just some high profile licensing deals they can't charge too much for without losing customers.
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It isn't particularlly vaiuable.
$40bn feels quite valuable to me.
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It isn't particularlly vaiuable.
$40bn feels quite valuable to me.
Yeah, it is a pretty high price for a company with an income of $200 million and total assets worth $3 billion. They would make the expense back in 200 years at the current rate. Of course company purchases are mostly free for publically traded companies as the expended amount gets added back into the NVidia stock as expected added value.
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"is IBM/Freescale about to announce some radical stuff about PPC (or Freescale the 68k based *Ball platforms) we didn't know about?"
IBM have their OpenPOWER initiative. But I doubt you'll see PPC again in consumer gear. e.g. Wii was replaced by Switch - powered by, you guessed it, an ARM-based chip from Nvidia.
nVidia has $40 billions dollars (Score:2)
Nvidia probably normally couldn't afford ARM but with COVID everything's cheaper. This is one of the nastier side effects of the disease. Lots of ugly mergers & acquisitions that'll hurt us all. This is why we made and used to enforce anti-trust law. The UK shouldn't be allowing this sale, the global security
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Intel tried low power for mobile stuff, Apple was not impressed.
More than a decade passed and they seem less and less impressed by intel.
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Nvidia probably normally couldn't afford ARM but with COVID everything's cheaper. This is one of the nastier side effects of the disease. Lots of ugly mergers & acquisitions that'll hurt us all.
What? Since when did companies start selling themselves off for cheap because of COVID? Did ARM's business tank in the last 9 months?
All it would take is for Intel to get their shit together on low power mobile and Arm goes poof.
You obviously have no idea why ARM is popular. Intel chips can't be integrated into larger/custom SOCs. It's very unlikely Intel will take over smartphone processors either. The x86 architecture (CISC) doesn't easily scale down to be small and low power.
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Nvidia probably normally couldn't afford ARM but with COVID everything's cheaper.
Umm. No. SoftBank paid $32 Billion for ARM 4 years ago. Nvidia is paying $40 Billion for it now. The price hasn't gone down (let alone down due to COVID). I'm not sure if that was a joke or not. ("whoosh" on me if so. :-) )
However, it's quite possible that COVID has played into Nvidia's outrageous market valuation increase this year, which stands today at around $320 Billion (more than Intel's). You can do lots of interesting things with that kind of market valuation. I guess buying one of your IP su
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In an all-share deal that market cap absolutely counts too. Good spot on the relative trajectories.
ARM didn't benefit from the cryptocurrency bubble and they are two fundamentally different business models, so it's not too surprising that their trajectories diverged.
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The most obvious alternative to ARM is RISC-V.
RISC-V is based on a development of the same processor core that spawned MIPS, but a later version. It's actually an ISA, not a processor core, allowing multiple implementations.
RISC-V is open source, so it's a better long term approach, because there is no risk that future licenses will not be available.
I imagine that, were they in their offices, there would be dancing in the corridors at SiFive right now.
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If any of those companies had bought ARM it would have caused legal problems for them, anti-trust issues and the like. Nvidia thinks it can get away with it because it doesn't really make devices (just the Shield range) and is mostly just a chip vendor.
They may be wrong, lawsuits may start to fly and regulators may take an interest anyway, but that would be my guess.
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1. Have the PM call in the ambassador to Japan. 2. Tell the ambassador ARM will be nationalized by the UK. 3. Remind the ambassador that Softbank is basically a front for Saudi money, and its losses mean very little to the Japanese economy. 4. Call the Saudi ambassador and say "sucks to be a Saudi royal, k bye now." 5. Reincorporate ARM as a privately-held company that cannot go public or sell to non-British owners according to its charter
6. Saudi Ambassador: OK, That 60billion pounds we've invested already and the 65 billion of mutual trade and investment opportunities planned? K, say bye now...
7. PM: Uh, we'll get back to you...
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Not to mention the impact that would have on the not-yet-ratified trade deal between the UK and Japan.
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2. Tell the ambassador ARM will be nationalized by the UK.
Say goodbye to any foreign investment whatsoever. Say hello to massive economic sanctions for an effective theft of 60 billion dollars from a privately owned enterprise.
Plus: say goodbye to the UK's drug of choice, CCTV cameras, as no Chinese company will trust the UK anymore, either.
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an effective theft of 60 billion dollar
$40bn is the price, not 60.
Nationalisation isn't theft anyway. It's a forced sale. Softbank would receive compensation and even with COVID and Brexit I think UK treasury gilts are a safer investment than Nvidia shares.
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Easy doesn't mean good.
As many have noted, the appropriate time for the UK government to have drawn a line was before the sale to SoftBank. Not because they were Japanese, but because banks invest for a time, expect growth/earnings, or can be counted on to sell. There's no "invest because it's critical to our government, our educational institutions, etc. its a bank.
Dropping the equivalent of financial nuclear devices will have long term unfortunate consequences.
As for Nvida being Good or Evil that's proba
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If I were working for ARM, I'd probably view this as a good thing. Nvida has $$. They understand the value of technology, and in long term investments in tech.
You're looking at the technology.
ARM will also have an entire corporate business support structure, which entirely duplicates the one already in situ at Nvidia. There will inevitably be job losses as those functions are merged, so it's reasonable that head office staff have a level of anxiety at the moment.
Why now? (Score:3)
I understand them not liking Nvidia but why wasn't this a concern when they were sold to Softbank years ago? Furthermore what indications are they getting that Nvidia is going to close the UK offices? It's possible they could but its equally possible that Softbank does the same and sells off ARM's IP if they don't find a buyer for the company.
This all just seems to me of a case of choosy beggars. They let themselves get bought by a bank, that bank is now selling them because of unrelated bad investments (We Work etc) and they think they can somehow dictate the terms of the sale.
I suppose the UK government could get involved and block it somehow but in a post brexit world it seems unwise to do so. Europe seem to resent the whole thing and pissing off the US and Japan would just make the whole situation worse.
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... they think they can somehow dictate the terms of the sale.
Sure they can, All the Tories have to do is yell NATIONAL SECURITY!!! loudly enough. The US Reps and Dems, for example, do that all the time whenever they want to correct the course of the of the invisible guiding hand of the free market for political reasons. This kind of thing is pretty much standard in most countries when it comes to valuable industries.
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In that sentence "they" referred to ARM employees and executives.
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I once handed out leaflets outside the Unite HQ in London. No one wants leaflets, but most people were pretty civil - but without exception, every single person headed into the Unite building that morning was grumpy AF. Not sure what it is about working there, but it seems few enjoy it.
Now, onto ARMs sale - the problem the unions are now facing up to (after years of having their heads up the arses) is that ARM is the first of *many* businesses that will be sold, "hollowed out" and moved elsewhere. Post Brex
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What percentage of the technical staff even work in the UK?
Well, yes (Score:2)
The purpose of staff/management meetings is to fob the staff off with something meaningless. What's the issue?
Who's going to front the money to keep them compet (Score:2)
Softbank was letting their profits drop to invest more ... but even so their implementation is increasingly alackluster relative to Apple. Quallcom isn't doing much better. How much is ARM worth if only one licensee slowly gobbles up most of the market? A licensee which probably has a sweetheart deal due to historical reasons and provides limited income.
ARM needs a lot of money to close the gap with Apple and keep the market healthy. Who's going to invest like that except for a major tech firm? Bunch of gov
I want to be Fobbed Off (Score:2)
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"To put off deceitfully; to attempt to satisfy with something of inferior quality or something less than one has been led to expect."
https://www.phrases.org.uk/mea... [phrases.org.uk]
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More succinctly, it's how you tell someone to fuck off without telling them to fuck off.
Boohoo (Score:1)
Who cares.
Nobody cried over the death of the Alpha, why should anyone care about entitled Europeans.
Yâ(TM)all didnâ(TM)t buy Sinclair QLâ(TM)s or sell them abroad so why should we care?
Re: Boohoo (Score:2)
Nobody cried over the death of the Alpha
You obviously weren't on Slashdot.
Sold to Japanese Company was ok? (Score:2)
So, ARM was sold to a Japanese company any they were fine with that but now it's being sold to another chip designer (US owned) they think the world is ending? If they really wanted to keep it in the UK they shouldn't have sold it in the first place. They seem worried about their home grown tech sector now but were fine pawning it off to Japan for whatever reason. Either you care and don't want to sell it to an outside company or you don't. Now that it's owned by Softbank, it seems too late to complain.
Re: Sold to Japanese Company was ok? (Score:2, Insightful)
Imo, selling to a Japanese company is very different to selling to a US company, especially when Trump is in charge. Nobody trusts the USA any more.
Re:Sold to Japanese Company was ok? (Score:4, Insightful)
The big difference is that Softbank isn't a semiconductor company. NVidia owning the ARM IP has a much greater scope for disruption of the industry.
Also, Softbank had little incentive to move the HQ and development, whereas NVidia might want to consolidate these functions into its HQ in Santa Clara.
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judi slot online (Score:1)