Apple Considering $8 Billion Acquisition of ARM?

[riso]

ARM Holdings, the company that creates the processors for most of the world’s mobile phones including the iPhone and iPad, is now the center of major acquisition rumors. The potential buyer: none other than Apple.

According to the London Evening Standard, there is huge chatter in London’s financial scene that ARM Holdings could be acquired by the technology giant for around $8 billion dollars, or 5.2 billion pounds.

Let’s be very clear: this is very much in the rumors and speculation stage. However, shares of ARM Holdings shot up by over 8% during trading today, mostly due to the rumors. The deal is completely doable on Apple’s end — it has over $40 billion in cash reserves.

An acquisition would do two things for Apple. First, it would bring more chip technology in-house, allowing the company greater control over the development of mobile processors. Second, it would potentially give Apple the ability to deny competitors access to ARM’s technology, including Android phones.

If Apple did indeed acquire ARM, it would completely change the game and potentially force mobile phone manufacturers to use weaker-performing processors in their phones. That is, of course, if these rumors are true and if Apple can get such a deal past not only American regulators, but stricter European regulators as well. There is also a difference between ARM products and ARM-licensed products — revoking or limiting current licensing deals would be one hell of a mess.

For now, file this one under the “plausible rumor” category. We’ll let you know if we hear anything more.

[javajolt]

If multiple reports are correct, it appears that Apple is considering acquiring ARM Holdings for $8 billion USD.

ARM is the company behind the processors in most of the world's current smartphones, including the iPhone.

The latest rumor comes via the London Evening Standard, which says Apple is looking to purchase ARM for 5.2 billion pounds, the equivalent of about $8 billion USD.

Although this is still speculation, Apple has over $25 billion in cash reserves and no debt, meaning the deal could be completed easily.

The move would have two positives for Apple. They would bring chip technology in-house, allowing for more "Apple-ized" processors, and secondly, Apple could potentially block ARM processors from being used in rival smartphones, such as those made by HTC with the Android OS.

The second "positive" may never come to fruition, given the notoriously strict nature of European anti-trust regulators, but it still a possibility.

Here are the other 2 big players account balances as of today 4.22.2010

Microsoft = $36, 730,000,000.00

G o o g l e = $26,510,000,000.00

[javajolt]

Just came across this, and it appears somebody jumped the gun on saying apple was buying this UK company.  Oops!  So I guess apple can keep that $8B on their balance sheet.

ARM Holdings, whose chip designs are in Apple's iPhone, has poured cold water on talk Apple is looking at making a bid for the UK firm. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

ARM Holdings and Apple go way back and on Thursday the market was taking the view their relationship could be about to become even tighter.

Shares in the Cambridge-based chip designer soared to an eight-year high as rumours continued to circulate that Apple may have ARM in its sights as an acquisition target.

But before speculators get too carried away, Arm's chief executive Warren East reminds everyone to look at the economics. With ARM's market capitalisation at more than £3bn why fork out a fortune to own it when Apple and others can license the designs at a fraction of that?

     

At the root of the rumours, ARM's microchips can be found in most of the world's mobile phones, including Apple's iPhone. As consumer demand for smartphones grow and as the devices get smarter, they will need more of Arm's designs. Having said that, Apple now owns its own chip designer – PA Semi.

The talk left ARM's shares up 8.4p, or 3.4%, to 258.9p, the highest since April 2002 and made them the day's top performers on the FTSE 100.

The bluechip index had a punishing day overall as new worries about Greece's deficit rattled nerves around the world - something that pushed the euro close to a 12-week low against the pound. The FTSE 100 finished down 58.1 points, or 1%, at 5665.3 adding to steep losses made on Wednesday as miners sold off for a second day.

Although the flight ban was over, worries about volcanic ash-related losses continued to weigh on British Airways and it was one of the day's biggest fallers down 8p, or 3.4%, at 225.5p. Assessing the fallout, analysts at ratings agency Fitch commented that Lufthansa and Air France-KLM were likely to have been hit the worst in absolute terms but that BA was the longest affected with a 100% network closure lasting almost six days.

     

Looking ahead to next week there was a boost to Unilever from a broker upgrade and as rival food group Nestle posted an upbeat outlook. Analysts at Panmure Gordon expect "good" first quarter results when the soup-to-soap marker reports next Thursday and believe that after trading in the doldrums for some time the shares will soon take off. They raised their recommendation to "buy" from "hold" and increased their price target to £23.00 from £20.00, a vote of confidence that left Unilever shares up 21p, or 1.1%, at £19.61.