In a deal that will redefine the semiconductor market, NVIDIA agreed to acquire Arm Limited from Softbank for $40 billion. Under the deal, NVIDIA will pay to SoftBank a total of $21.5 billion in NVIDIA common stock and $12 billion in cash. NVIDIA will also issue $1.5 billion in equity to Arm employees. The deal does not include Arm’s IoT Services Group.
NVIDIA vowed to retain Arm's open-licensing model while maintaining the global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success. NVIDIA also committed to retaining Arm's headquarters in Cambridge, UK.
SoftBank will retain a minority stake in NVIDIA, which is expected to be under 10%.
“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In the years ahead, trillions of computers running AI will create a new internet-of-things that is thousands of times larger than today’s internet-of-people. Our combination will create a company fabulously positioned for the age of AI.
“Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an extraordinary company that is contributing to nearly every technology market in the world. Uniting NVIDIA’s AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arm’s CPU, we can advance computing from the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars and robotics, to edge IoT, and expand AI computing to every corner of the globe.
“This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and the industry. For Arm’s ecosystem, the combination will turbocharge Arm’s R&D capacity and expand its IP portfolio with NVIDIA’s world-leading GPU and AI technology.
https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai
NVIDIA acquires Mellanox - focus on Next Gen Data Centers
NVIDIA says that by combining its computing expertise with Mellanox’s high-performance networking technology, data center customers will achieve higher performance, greater utilization of computing resources and lower operating costs.
“The emergence of AI and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the world’s datacenters,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant datacenter-scale compute engine.“We share the same vision for accelerated computing as NVIDIA,” said Eyal Waldman, founder and CEO of Mellanox. “Combining our two companies comes as a natural extension of our longstanding partnership and is a great fit given our common performance-driven cultures. This combination will foster the creation of powerful technology and fantastic opportunities for our people.”
NVIDIA also promised to continue investing in Israel, where Mellanox is based.
NVIDIA acquires Cumulus, promising full-stack data center innovation
NVIDIA has acquired Cumulus Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Cumulus, which was founded in 2010 by JR Rivers and Nolan Leake, developed a Linux-based operating system for network switches. The company signed licensing deals with Dell, HPE, Mellanox, and Lenovo. Cumulus is also known for its pioneering work with the open network install environment (ONIE) project. Investors in the company included Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Peter Wagner and 4 of the 5 original VMware founders. Cumulus is based in Mountain View, California.
NVIDIA said the combination of its recently-acquired Mellanox division with Cumulus Networks will enable a new era for accelerated, software-defined data centers.
NVIDIA's target is to "innovate and optimize across the entire networking stack from chips and systems to software including analytics like Cumulus NetQ, delivering great performance and value to customers."
Mellanox has been collaborating with Cumulus since 2013. Mellanox Spectrum switches already ship with Cumulus Linux and SONiC, the open source offering forged in Microsoft’s Azure cloud and managed by the Open Compute Project.
SoftBank Confirms Acquisition of ARM
SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to acquire ARM Holdings Plc in an all-cash deal valued at £24.3 billion. (US$32.4 billion), or 1,700 pence per ARM share, and representing a premium of 43% over the closing price on preceding trading day. The deal would be Softbank's largest to date.
SoftBank, which is based in Tokyo and is headed by Masayoshi Son, said it intends to preserve the ARM organization and business model, including ARM's senior management team and its headquarters in Cambridge, England. The companies said they intend to double employee headcount in the UK over the next five years.
ARM is the leading developer of RISC processor designs that are widely licensed for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, embedded systems, and, increasing, servers. The company posted 2015 revenue of £968.3 million. A total of 14.8 billion ARM-powered SoCs shipped in 2015, up from just over 12 billion in 2014.SoftBank will fund the acquisition with cash on hand and a load from Mizuho Bank of Japan.
“We have long admired ARM as a world renowned and highly respected technology company that is by some distance the market-leader in its field. ARM will be an excellent strategic fit within the SoftBank group as we invest to capture the very significant opportunities provided by the “Internet of Things,” stated Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank.
Regarding strategic rationale, both companies said they see big opportunities ahead with IoT.
