Japanese investment holding company SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY) is rumored to be eyeing the listing of its Arm chip design unit in an initial public offering in mid-to late-September.
What Happened: Softbank, run by Masayoshi Son, will apply to the SEC later this month for a Nasdaq listing of the U.K.-based company, Nikkei reported, without citing any sources.
Arm's market capitalization at the listing will likely be over $60 billion, which would make the deal the world's biggest initial public offering so far this year.
The report also said tech giants Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Samsung would invest in Arm immediately after its listing.
The Arm parent thinks bringing these companies on board will help stabilize the stock price while listing and therefore intends to sell stakes of a few percent to each, Nikkei said.
Why It's Important: SoftBank currently owns 75% of Arm shares and the remainder of the 25% is held by the SoftBank Vision Fund, which invests in tech companies around the world. The Vision Fund, Nikkei said, would sell 10-15% of its stake.
SoftBank bought Arm in 2016 for $31 billion and since then its valuation has doubled, the report said.
A deal SoftBank negotiated to sell Arm to Nvidia fell through in early 2022 amid anti-competitive concerns.
The rumored move will likely give the IPO market a lift as it hasn't taken off in a big way since the COVID-19 pandemic.
有传言称，日本投资控股公司软银集团公司（场外交易代码：SFTBY）将考虑在9月中旬至下旬的首次公开募股中将其Arm芯片设计部门上市。
发生了什么： 软银，由软银经营 孙正义， 日经报道，将在本月晚些时候向美国证券交易委员会申请这家总部位于英国的公司的纳斯达克上市，但没有引用任何消息来源。
Arm在上市时的市值可能超过600亿美元，这将使该交易成为今年迄今为止全球最大规模的首次公开募股。
报告还说，科技巨头 苹果公司 （纳斯达克股票代码：AAPL）， 英特尔公司 （纳斯达克股票代码：INTC）， 英伟达公司 纳斯达克股票代码：NVDA），三星将在Arm上市后立即对其进行投资。
日经指数表示，这家Arm母公司认为，让这些公司加入将有助于稳定上市时的股价，因此打算向每家公司出售几％的股份。
为什么它很重要： 软银目前拥有Arm75％的股份，其余的25％由Arm持有 软银愿景基金， 它投资于世界各地的科技公司。日经指数表示，愿景基金将出售其10-15％的股份。
报告称，软银在2016年以310亿美元的价格收购了Arm，此后其估值翻了一番。
由于反竞争担忧，软银谈判达成的向英伟达出售Arm的协议在2022年初失败。
传闻中的举动可能会提振IPO市场，因为自 COVID-19 疫情以来，IPO市场一直没有大幅起飞。
