Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Shares of ARM Jump Again After Rumors of Apple Takeover Resurface

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,159
38,935



091713-arm_logo.jpg


Reuters reports that shares of ARM Holdings jumped as much as 32% today on renewed rumors that Apple is looking to take over the company. It is unclear exactly what triggered the new round of speculation, as the rumor first surfaced in earnest in late April.

At the time, ARM dismissed the rumors, arguing that such an acquisition makes no sense given ARM's business model. And with respect to the latest rumors, an ARM spokeswoman again denied that it had been approached about a takeover.
"Hearing (an) old rumour that Apple want to bid for them," said one trader.

A spokeswoman for ARM said the chip designer had not received an approach, and said a takeover from Apple would not make sense, reiterating comments made by its CEO Warren East in April and its President Tudor Brown last month.
Click to expand...
ARM is the chip design firm that provides the basic platform for Apple's mobile chips used in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, as well as numerous other mobile devices from a broad array of manufacturers. ARM does not produce the chips itself, however, choosing instead to license its designs to chipmakers for modification and production.

Article Link: Shares of ARM Jump Again After Rumors of Apple Takeover Resurface
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/10/shares-of-arm-jump-again-after-rumors-of-apple-takeover-resurface/
It might not be in ARM's business model that it needs Apple to purchase them, and it would be unlikely to directly benefit ARM, however the benefits to Apple are huge.

- Being able to tailor designs to the requirements of their products
- Having processors optimised for iOS and OS X platforms (especially power management)
- Control over which competitors get what technology (although anti-trust would certainly be an issue)
- Optimise designs so that processor packaging (i.e. size and shape of the final product) suit the internal designs of their products where space is very limited (iPhones / iPod Touches)
- create high speed interconnect technologies between processor, graphics, memory, IO, etc

It would however be a surprising move by Apple, and as likely as Apple buying Foxconn.
 
Apple engineers designed the A4 chip

I have been a little confused about the following. And based on this thread I am more confused. Does the following mean Apple designed the A-4 chip but someone else makes it like ARM or does ARM just get a royalty. Can someone clarify?

"Apple engineers designed the A4 chip to be a remarkably powerful yet remarkably power-efficient mobile processor. With it, iPhone 4 can easily perform complex jobs such as multitasking, editing video, and placing FaceTime calls. All while maximizing battery life."
 
I got it at $8.64 I wanna know if I should sell on this news, or hang on to it and hope for an aapl takeover? I'm so confused, I could use the cash but don't want to be burned later:confused:

edit: i sold
 
d21mike said:
I have been a little confused about the following. And based on this thread I am more confused. Does the following mean Apple designed the A-4 chip but someone else makes it like ARM or does ARM just get a royalty. Can someone clarify?
Click to expand...
The A4 chip was primarily designed by ARM, slightly modified by a company called Intrinsity which was recently acquired by Apple (hence apple's claim to have designed the chip) and by Samsung. It is manufactured by Samsung.

Apple doesn't have the necessary know-how to make such products. It's all marketing.
 
chris200x9 said:
I got it at $8.64 I wanna know if I should sell on this news, or hang on to it and hope for an aapl takeover? I'm so confused, I could use the cash but don't want to be burned later:confused:

edit: i sold
Click to expand...

I'd have done the same.
 
Step one: Buy shares in popular tech company with lower than normal shares

Step two: Start rumour about Apple buying said company out and spread to aggrigate sites like Digg.

Step three: There's no step three!

...and you all thought I was doing the PROFIT!!!! meme!
 
womble2k2 said:
It might not be in ARM's business model that it needs Apple to purchase them, and it would be unlikely to directly benefit ARM, however the benefits to Apple are huge.

- Being able to tailor designs to the requirements of their products
- Having processors optimised for iOS and OS X platforms (especially power management)
- Control over which competitors get what technology (although anti-trust would certainly be an issue)
- Optimise designs so that processor packaging (i.e. size and shape of the final product) suit the internal designs of their products where space is very limited (iPhones / iPod Touches)
- create high speed interconnect technologies between processor, graphics, memory, IO, etc

It would however be a surprising move by Apple, and as likely as Apple buying Foxconn.
Click to expand...

Apple can achieve those through ARM regardless if they own ARM or not.
 
ccdan said:
The A4 chip was primarily designed by ARM, slightly modified by company a called Intranasity which was recently acquired by Apple (hence apple's claim to have designed the chip) and by Samsung. It is manufactured by Samsung.

Apple doesn't have the necessary know-how to make such products. It's all marketing.
Click to expand...

except that they bought Intrinsity. Make no mistake, Apple is just as skilled at making chhips as ARM is now. ( in terms of sophistication of CPU )
Both are fabless chip companies, meaning they design them but don't make them.

Think of it more like this....
ARM == Ford
Intrinsity == Shelby
Samsung == Factory that builds the new modified design

( of course the analogy isn't perfect since Ford makes its own cars )
 
Like the company says, doesn't make sense with their business model. The FTC would be all over them, and where does it leave them in 5 years if, after others come in to fill the gap for other handset makers, their chips fall behind the performance curve?
 
chrmjenkins said:
Like the company says, doesn't make sense with their business model. The FTC would be all over them, and where does it leave them in 5 years if, after others come in to fill the gap for other handset makers, their chips fall behind the performance curve?
Click to expand...

I agree. No what Apple should do is buy T-Mobile US.
 
Just remember, what motivates SJ is Power, and Money. Now, if they were to acquire ARM, Apple could dictate who would be licensed to use what. They could cripple the competition, little by little, or just shut them down from supply, and make them seek other companies, all the while letting Apple advancing ahead of them. The Government stopped Bill, and Steve took over where he left off.
 
Only thing that makes sense to me is if they want ARM IP so they can use the ARM core to build something proprietary that ARM may otherwise have an issue with (because they are not making money off of it). With grand central, Apple has an operating system that could run on lots of ARM cores on a desktop class chip.
 
Scooterman1 said:
Just remember, what motivates SJ is Power, and Money. Now, if they were to acquire ARM, Apple could dictate who would be licensed to use what. They could cripple the competition, little by little, or just shut them down from supply, and make them seek other companies, all the while letting Apple advancing ahead of them. The Government stopped Bill, and Steve took over where he left off.
Click to expand...

No. He wants to make the best product and is willing to stop at nothing to do that. Power and Money are just the tools to that means.
 
Friscohoya said:
I agree. No what Apple should do is buy T-Mobile US.
Click to expand...

To get in a new business that they know nothing about? At least the phone business piggybacks off their operating system business and if they were hypothetically to get in the CPU business that would piggyback off their hardware business. They have also built custom chipsets in the past, so they have some experience there.

Besides, if they were to do that, they would have trouble convincing other carriers to support the iPhone.
 
Scooterman1 said:
Just remember, what motivates SJ is Power, and Money. Now, if they were to acquire ARM, Apple could dictate who would be licensed to use what. They could cripple the competition, little by little, or just shut them down from supply, and make them seek other companies, all the while letting Apple advancing ahead of them. The Government stopped Bill, and Steve took over where he left off.
Click to expand...


Its hard to deny his hunger for power, but he is not stupid. As others have said, the FTC would likely be all over this deal like white on rice.
 
just a note that I feel for those of you reading this thread who dont understand the technology, design, and licensing issues enough to follow. I dont claim expertise, but I know enough to know I dont fully understand it, and the analogies being made arent perfect - but there aren't any obvious relevant ones or they would be being made. I would post a better one if I could think of one.

I'll try my best to add something useful though..

There are zillions of things in the technology world where royalties or licenses exist. The ARM basic chip design is one of them (there are others related to things "like" Bluetooth, USB, Wifi etc). And lots of companies are using the ARM design (including lots of smartphone companies), including Apple, most prominently because of their recent acquisition of Intrinsity, which piggybacked on the basic ARM chip design and made some improvements that Apple favors.

The oddity of all of this, is as the ARM CEO disclaimed, Apple already gets most of the possible benefit of ultimate ownership because they can do what they like with their current arrangement (via what they already pay ARM as a fee). They can tweak their designs/etc - and I dont believe they are significantly restricted in what they can do with it, if at all. ARM wants people to use it (this isnt Apple we're talking about in terms of restrictions ;-)

They could (and do) already design things like interconnect technologies for it (I cannot see why they would be prevented from doing so).

So there are legitimate reasons to wonder WHY Apple would want to take over ARM, ie, fully have control, given their current status which lets them do what they want with the chips without paying for the whole company. It comes down to really the third bullet point, of being able to control access. In that case, If Apple owned ARM they could hoard the whole sandpile if they chose, and decline to sell rights to anyone else.

Just a disclaimer that I am sure someone will find some faults with this summary but my sense is overall its give or take sufficiently right to get people up to speed if they arent there. (Feel free to point out faults, just trying to help).
 
ccdan said:
The A4 chip was primarily designed by ARM, slightly modified by a company called Intrinsity which was recently acquired by Apple (hence apple's claim to have designed the chip) and by Samsung. It is manufactured by Samsung.

Apple doesn't have the necessary know-how to make such products. It's all marketing.
Click to expand...

Errr. PA Semi designed the A4 chip. Apple acquired PA Semi several years ago. It's based on the Cortex A8 ARM reference design (like practically every other ARM chip out now). Samsung manufacturers the A4.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/technology/business-computing/02chip.html

Edit: or maybe it was Intrinsity. No one really knows. Weird that Jobs would say it was their custom silicon.
 
womble2k2 said:
It might not be in ARM's business model that it needs Apple to purchase them, and it would be unlikely to directly benefit ARM, however the benefits to Apple are huge.

- Being able to tailor designs to the requirements of their products
- Having processors optimised for iOS and OS X platforms (especially power management)
- Control over which competitors get what technology (although anti-trust would certainly be an issue)
- Optimise designs so that processor packaging (i.e. size and shape of the final product) suit the internal designs of their products where space is very limited (iPhones / iPod Touches)
- create high speed interconnect technologies between processor, graphics, memory, IO, etc

It would however be a surprising move by Apple, and as likely as Apple buying Foxconn.
Click to expand...


Apple may not need to gain full control but enough control or ownership to:

- influence future design direction and timing
- prevent another company from gaining control (or potentially be held hostage)

In general I think Apple just wants as much autonomy as it can get...similar to Imagination Technologies, where they have a minority stake, I think they just want a say in strategic technologies and designs that their products relies on. (in the case of PA-semi, it made sense to buy a team vs build a team).

I don't think Apple wants really wants to deal with the headaches of "cutting off competitors" or controlling their competitors technology ... at least it's not their track record. In general, I think, Apple just likes to out-design their competitors.


P.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back