Softbank selling 25 percent stake in ARM to Saudi-backed fund?

Last year Japanese telecom giant Softbank bought ARM for £23.4 billion ($28.43 billion at today's rates) and now word is going around that SoftBank is planning to sell a 25 percent stake in the chip designer to its new $100 billion investment fund. Called the Softbank Vision Fund, this is a cooperation between various parties.

Softbank committed to pump at least $25 billion into the fund over the next five years but the biggest investor will be Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which last year committed $45 billion to the Vision Fund. Another big investor is Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi-backed fund that owns GlobalFoundries, they reportedly want to commit $15 billion to Vision Fund but demanded a stake in ARM.

The move is likely to guarantee greater influence for Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi state-backed investment group, in the global semiconductor industry. Mubadala, which owns 100 percent of Globalfoundries, reportedly wanted the $100 billion Vision Fund to own a portion of ARM.

The 25 percent stake in ARM is expected to change hands for around $8 billion. Full detail at EE Times.