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Apple to Make an Offer to Acquire ARM?

This would be horrible...

This would be really bad for the Mobile industry. As people have mentioned I'm sure Apple would continue to license to other Companies, but also as mentioned Apple would keep the best stuff for it's self. This would of course be a totally unacceptable situation for Apple's competitors (Nokia, RIM, Google). In this marked getting the best stuff 1-2years later than Apple would kill them (I figure 6-12 months just because the Apple device manufacturers can now call up the CPU designers and know everything during the design phase, and another 6-12 months because Apple want's a lead).

This will flat out force the other device manufactures to go develop on other architectures. This will inevitably lead to them fracturing the other platforms (some move to Atom, some move to MIPS, some move to ARC etc).

This will in the end grant the market to Intel. As long as _all_ the mobile companies are supporting ARM development, ARM has a chance against Atom. If the moble market fractures Intel will bury them all.

In 5yrs Apple (and everyone else) will have to depend on Intel for both desktop and mobile processors. Which will be horrible for everyone.

Please say it ain't so.
 
shadowbird423 said:
This will stifle innovation... The FTC may have something to say about this
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I doubt current that Apple could cancel current licensing agreements that prement others to use current technology.

However considering that Intel is in almost all end user computers, there is little risk of anti-trust since there are others options. Cosidering the if ARM went away there is always IBM and Freescale (Motorola), Samsung, Sony.. etc who sell Microporcessors for Mobile devices...
 
EagerDragon said:
I think it is doable and FTC would approve if Apple promises to sell to competitors for the next 2 years.
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Remember ARM is a British company so they will also have to get the approval of the European Commission before any sale takes place.

The EC is no pushover as Microsoft and Intel have found to their cost when they have attempted to stifle fair competition.
 
I'd be surprised to see this happen. I agree with others who say that the US gov't wouldn't allow the sale to go through. It most likely would kill the cellular market for smartphones. Microsoft could like it though as it could also keep ARM procs out of Netbooks that could NOT run Windows since there isn't currently a build that runs on the ARM architecture.
 
Conspiracy Theory

Sorry got to the party late. But could the this "buy" to be a booby trap for Google or even Microsoft. Apple has chip design experience in the PPC gang and now with PA Semi in-house. Rumor has it Apple will buy ARM for 8 billion. Google puts in an offer of 10bn. Microsoft puts down 12bn. Apple makes a "weak" bid of 12.1bn and drops out as both Google and Microsoft get into a bidding war. Eventually the winner pays an huge amount. Reserves take a hit. In the end, Apple has a mile-wide grin. Because that huge purchase has slowed down the competition. Giving it enough time to put out its mutant SoC chip that it now put into iDevices and the MBA.

Slightly veering. Not sure what would happen if Apple bought AMD. Guts says business as usual except for AMD's and ATI's super secret-way-cool tech vaults would have Apple stickers all over them. Apple would gain CPU & GPU tech portfolios. And to satisfy nervous customers like OEMS, HP, home builders and anybody in government pissed off that they couldn't buy an iPhone on thie network even though their network said "F*** NO", it could sell/license mutant variants of medium and high end CPUs. Make most happy except Intel, who would have a look like "No you didn't." And Apple would look back and say "Yeah. Ye did." That picture is still hazy.

Just some stray thoughts. If anyone else posted something slimlar before me, thanks for your post and I like how your mind works.:D
 
Maybe Apple would get it through the regulators by promising not to hold ARM chips from competitors. This could be true, but perhaps Apple would only allow them access to the current designs and not the future ones.
 
More then enough left over to buy Adobe and Palm! Now that would be something TOTAL domination! :D :apple:

dernhelm said:
I have only one thing to say:

muhwhaaaahaaaahaaahaaa!

<evil grin>


----

Seriously, this would be my favorite merger/buyout that's happened in the computer industry ever. Apple buys ARM, and everyone else either pays thru the nose or is forced to use crummy Atom chips.

Probably won't happen, but that would bollux up a lot of the competition.

And to think, they'd still have 80% of their war chest left.
Click to expand...
 
I like it.A good use for the cash horde.Hey Apple could still sell the chips to competitors.I wouldn't mind if they mad a little off other companies' phones!
 
I Don't think it will shake the industry up. Besides when google goes around and buys up companies no one says anything. But because this is apple its different? Please stop with the double standards.

Of course apple would save the best chipsets for itself. But why wouldn't it?
 
Apple is simply growing. As one would expect it to. Apple's job is not to encourage competition, but to attempt - within legality - to stifle it, and hopefully kill it. If you ran a business your goal would be to kill off competitors in order to become the main supplier. You *don't* want competition. As far as the consumer goes, as long as Apple keeps making great products and lovely things that people want, it really makes no difference what Apple does on their end, so long as it doesn't cross legal boundaries. If Apple plays with pricing and otherwise takes advantage of consumers, people will vote with their wallets and go elsewhere. Natural selection will take its course.

The whole point of any revolution is to replace the current regime with your own and then consolidate. Apple and Steve have been wanting to call the shots and dictate the terms of the game ever since Apple's inception. Why *wouldn't* they? The time is finally here. No serious player wants to remain a mom-and-pop shop forever. Again, as long as Apple respects competition laws and acts within the bounds of regulation, all the consumer need worry about is having access to a steady stream of Apple goodness. I use Apple products, and Apple has my loyalty because they've earned it. I'm not really concerned about what happens to Microsoft or Nokia or Google. There will always be other options. Just pick the one that suits you the most. Don't shed any tears for those competitors that die off as a result of not being able to tough it out. It's all part of the game.
 
To everyone that thinks this is terrible for the mobile industry (if true), consider this:

The ARM licensing contracts aren't going to be cancelled, and will probably continue for a while.

But, more importantly, if everyone uses ARM, and this spurs innovation, new development, and maybe even groundbreaking discovery, then maybe it is the best thing that could happen to the industry.
 
backdraft said:
More then enough left over to buy Adobe and Palm! Now that would be something TOTAL domination! :D :apple:
Click to expand...

I'd prefer they buy Nintendo, merge the AppleTV with the next Nintendo console, and for the most part let Nintendo still run under it's own name and current management. Have the biggest difference be that the Nintendo games need to be developed in XCode. this would encourage more mac games as the porting process should be somewhat trivial.
 
I agree

WorldMage said:
This would be really bad for the Mobile industry. As people have mentioned I'm sure Apple would continue to license to other Companies, but also as mentioned Apple would keep the best stuff for it's self. This would of course be a totally unacceptable situation for Apple's competitors (Nokia, RIM, Google). In this marked getting the best stuff 1-2years later than Apple would kill them (I figure 6-12 months just because the Apple device manufacturers can now call up the CPU designers and know everything during the design phase, and another 6-12 months because Apple want's a lead).

This will flat out force the other device manufactures to go develop on other architectures. This will inevitably lead to them fracturing the other platforms (some move to Atom, some move to MIPS, some move to ARC etc).

This will in the end grant the market to Intel. As long as _all_ the mobile companies are supporting ARM development, ARM has a chance against Atom. If the moble market fractures Intel will bury them all.

In 5yrs Apple (and everyone else) will have to depend on Intel for both desktop and mobile processors. Which will be horrible for everyone.

Please say it ain't so.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. Something else that Apple will have to consider is that right now they'd be buying a profitable company...however, if they restrict what the company sells or who it sells it to then the company may end up being a liability. Seems doubtful that Apple would make a purchase unless it could have a long-term payoff and it seems that purchasing ARM would only have short-term benefits at best.
 
They will do it simply because they cannot afford someone else to do it and then manipulate them, not to even mention the huge benefit of having control and integrity in ARM's products with their own.

Apple's product line now and in the future simply depends too much on ARM's stuff to let even be a chance be it somehow compromised.

:apple:
 
I find it very funny how people act like they know what's best for apple.

One commenter even said "Knowing apple like I do" lol

Apple is not your friend guys. Get over it.
 
I am skeptical that Apple would buy ARM.

In my limited understanding, ARM makes money by licensing its IP and thereby subsequent royalties on every chip sold. So Apple can prevent newer chips from being licensed out, but they cannot prevent chip makers who already have licenses to manufacture the chips from supplying to other companies. Considering Apple's use of ARM processors is less than probably 5% of the total, I highly suspect that the scenario feared by many will happen.

If they do acquire, I think Apple would seek to out compete the smartphone rivals in subtler ways than choking ARM's future cash-flow.
 
Apple would not attempt such a takeover. It would be such an aggregious anti-trust violation that US and European governance bodies would have no choice but to begin procedings, and Apple would lose. A dominant competitor in a market segment cannot just buy up the key supplier to all the other competitors.
 
arn said:
I have no clue on the regulatory feasibility of this, but seems like if it were allowed to happen, and apple were to prevent others from using arm chips. it could kill a huge portion of the mobile segment.
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It is far more likely Apple would let ARM be ARM but get preferential treatment on new initiatives that surpass the capabilities of the current road map.

ARM has contracts.

Rocketman
 
This would be terrible.

From Wikipedia:

"As of 2007, about 98 percent of the more than one billion mobile phones sold each year use at least one ARM processor. As of 2009, ARM processors account for approximately 90% of all embedded 32-bit RISC processors. ARM processors are used extensively in consumer electronics, including PDAs, mobile phones, digital media and music players, hand-held game consoles, calculators and computer peripherals such as hard drives and routers."

I highly doubt this would be legally allowed to happen.

Also, people supporting this move are ignorant and know not of what they speak.
 
The idea that because one company becomes so successful selling it's wares to various cellphone makers, that this means no one can buy that company, is absurd. If every cell phone maker allows themselves to be cornered like that, with no other option to turn to for processors, that is their mistake. Other options do and will exist.
 
lilo777 said:
OK, Apple develops an architecture and licenses it to competitors (say, Samsung). At the same time, obviously nothing prevents Apple to use the better version of the same architecture (and there are many ways how they come up with this scenario). Apple does not have to even tell anybody what exactly the use in their own chips (and knowing Apple they will not). Or, it can be the same architecture but Apple will always have much earlier access to it than anybody else. So every licensee will be stuck with a potentially inferior architecture and late to market disadvantage. Not a very enviable position. I just do not see that as a workable scenario. I am not aware of any company that does business in a similar way. If anything it reminds me of DEC (and even Apple itself with Power PC) trying to sell Alpha chips to competitors. Remember how this ended up?
Click to expand...

dec only sold strongarms to others. It didn't use them itself. And it was a small part of its business.

The scenario you describe is no different than Now. Apple has an architectural license to ARM. It can create designs better than the hard and soft IP arm licenses to everyone else, and apple does not have to share these designs with competitors. Buying ARM changes nothing.

It's like nokia owning mapping data - no one complains that nokia will keep the good maps to itself.
 
Gasu E. said:
Apple would not attempt such a takeover. It would be such an aggregious anti-trust violation that US and European governance bodies would have no choice but to begin procedings, and Apple would lose. A dominant competitor in a market segment cannot just buy up the key supplier to all the other competitors.
Click to expand...

Apple is no the dominnt competitor in any market segment other than iTunes.
 
What happens to ARM stock holders if the company gets bought out? Is it going to be run separate from apple, or 'absorbed'?
 
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