The British government has reportedly hinted that it could use national security laws to compel ARM to organize its IPO on the london markets rather than in the United States.
The current owner of Arm, SoftBank, has previously faced issues from China to secure an IPO that would allow the processor design company to list on the New York stock market. Today, the UK is pushing for SoftBank introduce ARM in London instead.
According to Financial Timesthe British government considered using the powers conferred by its new national security law and Investment (NSIA), but it has not done so officially. Instead, an unspecified implicated source says the UK so far uses “carrots” rather than “sticks” about this question.
However, the message to SoftBank, according to the source, is actually “ you don’t want to make us an enemy« .
Internally, the UK government is divided over the use of the regulations NSIA, for it is debatable whether it even applies. According to Financial Timesthe government denies raising national security concerns with SoftBank.
Nevertheless, the source reports that the leaders of SoftBank were aware of what was described as a scheme. A second source said national security issues would come into play if a non-UK company used the IPO to take a large stake in ARM.
SoftBank doesn’t have to choose a listing venue for a few months, and it may adopt a dual listing. According to the Financial Times, this would be considered a victory for the UKwhich, as a result of Brexit and government policies, is considered to be less attractive to businesses technologies.
The desire to start a business ARM separate through an IPO follows the failure of SoftBank in its attempt to sell the company to Nvidia. In this case, Nvidia withdrew from the operation due to national security concerns at the UK and anti-competition issues in the United States.
–
