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.
有傳言稱，日本投資控股公司軟銀集團公司（場外交易代碼：SFTBY）將考慮在9月中旬至下旬的首次公開募股中將其Arm芯片設計部門上市。
發生了什麼： 軟銀，由軟銀經營 孫正義， 日經報道，將在本月晚些時候向美國證券交易委員會申請這家總部位於英國的公司的納斯達克上市，但沒有引用任何消息來源。
Arm在上市時的市值可能超過600億美元，這將使該交易成爲今年迄今爲止全球最大規模的首次公開募股。
報告還說，科技巨頭 蘋果公司 （納斯達克股票代碼：AAPL）， 英特爾公司 （納斯達克股票代碼：INTC）， 英偉達公司 納斯達克股票代碼：NVDA），三星將在Arm上市後立即對其進行投資。
日經指數表示，這家Arm母公司認爲，讓這些公司加入將有助於穩定上市時的股價，因此打算向每家公司出售幾％的股份。
爲什麼它很重要： 軟銀目前擁有Arm75％的股份，其餘的25％由Arm持有 軟銀願景基金， 它投資於世界各地的科技公司。日經指數表示，願景基金將出售其10-15％的股份。
報告稱，軟銀在2016年以310億美元的價格收購了Arm，此後其估值翻了一番。
由於反競爭擔憂，軟銀談判達成的向英偉達出售Arm的協議在2022年初失敗。
傳聞中的舉動可能會提振IPO市場，因爲自 COVID-19 疫情以來，IPO市場一直沒有大幅起飛。
