軟銀將斥資234億英鎊收購ARM

Japan’s SoftBank has agreed to acquire Arm Holdings, the UK’s preeminent technology company, for ￡23.4bn in an enormous bet by the Japanese telecoms group that the smartphone chip designer will make it a leader in one of the next big tech markets, the internet of things.

日本電信集團軟銀(SoftBank)已同意以234億英鎊收購英國傑出的科技企業ARM Holdings。軟銀展開的這場豪賭，是在押注這家智能手機芯片設計商會助其成爲物聯網市場的領軍者。物聯網是下一批重要的高科技市場之一。

The deal is expected to be announced first thing Monday morning, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. SoftBank and Arm could not immediately be reached for comment.

兩名瞭解談判情況的人士稱，這筆交易預計會在週一早晨宣佈。記者無法立即聯繫上軟銀和ARM請其置評。

The takeover of Cambridge-based Arm, which was founded a quarter of a century ago and now employs 4,000 people, would be the largest acquisition of a European technology business. SoftBank will pay ￡17 in cash for each share in Arm, a 43 per cent premium to its closing price last week.

總部位於英國劍橋的ARM是在大約25年前成立的，如今擁有4000名員工。這筆收購將成爲對歐洲科技企業的最大一筆收購。軟銀將爲每股ARM股票支付17英鎊現金，相對於後者上週的收盤價溢價43%。

The deal comes just weeks after UK elected to exit the EU, a decision that raised questions over the attractiveness of the country’s business community. But Arm, as a global force in chip design, is better insulated from the vote for Brexit than many other UK companies with its leadership role in a key segment of the chip industry and the fact that it earns in US dollars.

幾周前，英國剛剛投票決定退出歐盟(EU)，這一決定爲英國商界的吸引力打上了問號。不過，作爲芯片設計方面的一支全球性力量，ARM受英國退歐公投影響的程度，比其他許多英國企業要小。ARM在芯片產業的一個關鍵領域扮演領導者角色，而且它賺取的是美元。

The fall in sterling following the Brexit vote has left the UK currency nearly 30 per cent lower against the Japanese yen over the past year, making Arm an attractive target. Shares in Arm were essentially flat over the last 12 months.

英鎊在英國退歐公投後下跌，過去一年裏相對日元下跌了近30%，這讓ARM成爲了一個誘人的收購對象。過去12個月，ARM的股價基本保持平穩。

Arm has often been talked about as a potential acquisition target for Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, which failed to capitalise on the smartphone boom. Intel’s chip architecture, known as x86, was developed for PCs and has been ill-suited to battery-powered devices for which efficient power consumption is key.

常常有說法稱，ARM是全球最大芯片製造商英特爾(Intel)的潛在收購對象。英特爾未能搭上智能手機熱潮的快車。它的名爲“x86”的芯片架構，是爲個人電腦(PC)開發的，不太適合用電池供電的設備，對後者來說，低功耗是一個關鍵因素。

Arm’s business model has relied on licensing its technology to other hardware makers, making it a near-ubiquitous feature of mobile devices. It reaps a small royalty amount for each device, relying on very large volumes. Last year, 15m chips based on its technology were shipped.

ARM的商業模式依賴於將其技術授權給其他硬件製造商，所以幾乎所有的移動設備上都能看到它的身影。ARM對每個設備收取小額專利使用費，它的收入要靠極爲龐大的裝機量。