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ARM Announces Record Profits, Dismisses Rumors of Apple Takeover

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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The Daily Telegraph reports that ARM Holdings, the design firm behind the processors used in Apple's iPhone OS devices and the subject of recent rumors that Apple might be looking at an acquisition, has announced record sales, revenue, and profits for the first quarter of 2010. In particular, chief executive Warren East cited the iPhone and its stimulation of the entire smartphone industry as key drivers for ARM's growth, and pointed to the iPad as another opportunity for the company.
"The iPhone acted as a great stimulus to encourage competitors to develop products to beat the iPhone," he said. "The iPad looks like it has set the competitive bar again, and will stimulate people to do a lot of other creative things."
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The report also notes that East "dismissed" the rumors of an Apple buyout, following up on comments he made last week arguing against the need for Apple or any other company to make an acquisition.

Research firm iSuppli yesterday also released its own fact sheet on the Apple-ARM situation, outlining several reasons why an acquisition of ARM makes little strategic sense for Apple.
"Just because ARM's IP plays an important role in mobile devices, that doesn't necessarily mean ARM is of strategic value to Apple," said William Kidd, director and principal analyst, financial services for iSuppli. "iSuppli thinks ARM would represent a costly acquisition with little in the way of true strategic benefits. The acquisition would not give Apple's products a competitive edge/differentiating value. iSuppli also doesn't buy into prevailing speculation that there could be significant value in denying other competitors access to ARM's IP, since the majority of the impact would be felt by companies like Broadcom, Samsung and Texas Instruments, which are not exactly Apple's biggest rivals. In any case, there would be no visible end-market impact seen for two years at a minimum.
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iSuppli also expects that other bidders would be likely to appear should Apple make a serious effort at acquiring ARM, as many chipmakers rely on ARM's technology, which would be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to shift away from, and fear Apple's "inward-looking corporate style" could inhibit the freedom they currently have to work off of ARM's designs.

Article Link: ARM Announces Record Profits, Dismisses Rumors of Apple Takeover
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/27/arm-announces-record-profits-dismisses-rumors-of-apple-takeover/
miles01110

miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
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The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
MacRumors said:
Research firm iSuppli yesterday also released its own fact sheet on the Apple-ARM situation, outlining several reasons why an acquisition of ARM makes little strategic sense for Apple.iSuppli also expects that other bidders would be likely to appear should Apple make a serious effort at acquiring ARM, as many chipmakers rely on ARM's technology, which would be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to shift away from, and fear Apple's "inward-looking corporate style" could inhibit the freedom they currently have to work off of ARM's designs.
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According to Ars, an Apple takeover of ARM wouldn't have much effect anyway as Apple couldn't unilaterally cancel existing agreements regarding chip supply.

By the way that's a really long sentence :p
 
X

-=XX=-Nephilim

macrumors 6502a
Feb 1, 2009
674
0
Cool to have some good news for a change :)

When I saw ARM in title I honestly freaked out for a bit that article might say that Apple actually did buy them...

Uh...

Anyway, thanks for posting this and bringing some fresh air into all this smelly Big Bro stuff that's going on lately!
 
H

HyperZboy

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2007
1,086
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Key Line: " there would be no visible end-market impact seen for two years at a minimum. "

The average CEO thinks more on a quarter revenue basis these days.
Steve Jobs does not think like other CEO's and is probably thinking far ahead of 2 years.

I could be and might be wrong, but I think if Jobs thinks its in Apple's best interest to lock up ARM technology for the coming decade, he'd pull the trigger on this deal in a heartbeat even if it hurts Apple in the short-term despite lots of deals already in place for ARM technology.
 
snowmoon

snowmoon

macrumors 6502a
Oct 6, 2005
900
119
Albany, NY
I don't see apple having any interest in ARM.

1) They have the knowledge in-house if they wanted to design their own CPU/GPU

2) They have full control of the compiler suite for the devices

With their vertical control over the device landscape they could easily swap out parts as needed to suit their needs including the CPU. Buying ARM would also expose them to all sorts of unpleasant questions about anti-competitive behavior, especially if they cut off competitors from the IP.
 
LagunaSol

LagunaSol

macrumors 601
Apr 3, 2003
4,798
0
Apple buying ARM may not make much sense, but Apple working with ARM for a superior, Apple-exclusive processor would be another story entirely.
 
D

dashiel

macrumors 6502a
Nov 12, 2003
876
0
it's rather amusing this speculation. apple at one time owned a significant amount of voting stock in ARM, i seem to recall it was even a majority stake. again my memory is a bit fuzzy, but i believe shortly after jobs killed the newton he sold (almost) all of apple's ownership in ARM. of course back then apple was in critical condition and needed all the capital they could get their hands on to keep afloat.
 
I

iigsie

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2007
141
116
pilotgi said:
I'm a happy ARMH shareholder. Got in at $5.31.
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With the latest price being 251.80p isn't that a rather large loss? I got in at around 120p so I'm doubles up at the mo.


cmaier said:
Apple will indeed take a majority stake in ARM. Just wait and see.
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I don't think Apple ever sold all of it's ARMH stake but I could be wrong. I seem to remember them keeping around 10% of the 40% they originally had.
 
cmaier

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
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California
iigsie said:
With the latest price being 251.80p isn't that a rather large loss? I got in at around 120p so I'm doubles up at the mo.




I don't think Apple ever sold all of it's ARMH stake but I could be wrong. I seem to remember them keeping around 10% of the 40% they originally had.
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At one point i think they were down to around 9%. Don't know if they ever dropped lower.
 
S

Stephen123

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2007
184
11
Looks like there may be a little confusion about ARM stock. They are NASDAQ:ARMH in New York and also LSE:ARM in London.
 
Dr. Scott

Dr. Scott

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2010
60
27
You're welcome

I hope ARM is planning on sending Apple a nice fruit basket for the record breaking quarter it helped provide... ;)
 
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