SoftBank completes ARM acquisition - with Micro Focus poised to take ARM's place in the FTSE-100

Business as usual for ARM, says SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, as takeover deal is completed

SoftBank has completed its £24.3bn acquisition of chip designer ARM, Britain's biggest technology company - with Micro Focus International, the venerable Cobol tools maker, poised to take its place in the FTSE-100 index of Britain's biggest companies.

The completion of the deal became a formality when ARM's shareholders voted 95 per cent in favour of the acquisition at the end of August.

The deal was formally completed on Monday, with ARM shares withdrawn following the suspension of trading on Friday. Shareholders as of 6pm on Friday 2 September will receive 1,700 pence in cash for each share held. ARM shares on the US Nasdaq stock exchange will be delisted a week later, on Monday 12 September.

The completion of the deal meant the resignations of a slew of ARM directors, including chairman Stuart Chambers, while current ARM CEO Simon Segars will stay on.

In a joint article bylined to SoftBank's chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son and Segars, the two executives described it as a "historic day".

It continued: "We have brought together two companies with a shared vision and ambition, driven to empower the world with technology that makes life easier, safer and more fulfilling. Now that ARM is part of the SoftBank Group, the vision and mission we share will not change; it is business as usual - only better."

The article pitched the deal not in terms of the number of products bearing ARM microprocessors shipped, of the number of people connected by SoftBank's mobile phone operating subsidiaries, but in terms of loftier goals.

"We believe that technology should advance for the benefit of humanity. Put another way, we believe that by harnessing the true potential of what SoftBank calls the ‘information revolution', we can contribute to people's happiness and joy, and to the future of the world. This is perhaps a bold proposition, but one that cuts right to the core of what technology can deliver."

It continued: "Together, we will continue to expand the technology that ARM offers through an even greater focus on research and development across the range of our processor designs, systems and software, physical IP, security technologies, wireless and smart connected platforms.

"ARM, as a member of the SoftBank Group, will remain an advanced engineering company that attracts and retains people who are passionate about developing technology that invisibly enables opportunity for a globally-connected population."

Regardless of all that, however, the ARM assets that SoftBank has expensively acquired with borrowed money will need to be sweated to make sure that the deal pays off financially.