SoftBank’s sale of Arm to Nvidia collapses – FT

The logo of technology company Nvidia is seen at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California February 11, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo

Feb 7 (Reuters) – SoftBank Group Corp’s (9984.T) sale of Arm Ltd to U.S. chipmaker Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) collapsed on Monday, the Financial Times reported, citing three people with direct knowledge of the transaction.

The deal has faced several regulatory hurdles, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission suing to block it in December. The buyout is also under the scrutiny of British and EU regulators amid concerns that it could push up prices and reduce choice and innovation.

The deal would give Nvidia control of Arm, which licenses out its computing architecture to semiconductor firms that design chips for devices like mobile phones.

Nvidia declined to comment. Arm and SoftBank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The value of the deal, which depends on Nvidia’s stock price, has been as much as $80 billion, though the California’s company’s stock has fallen.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argued in December that competition in the nascent markets for chips in self-driving cars and a new category of networking chips could be hurt if Nvidia carried out the purchase.

An Nvidia spokesperson in January, as questions over the future of the deal increased, said the company continued to believe the acquisition “provides an opportunity to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation.”

The Japanese investment giant would receive a break-up fee of up to $1.25 billion, the Financial Times quoted one of the people as saying.

Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Muralikumar Anantharaman

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