ARM Holdings to be sold to Japan’s SoftBank for £24bn

ARM Holdings, Britain’s most successful technology company, has agreed to be sold to Japan’s SoftBank for £24.3bn.

The Cambridge-based group, whose microchips are used in the iPhone and many other types of smartphones, said its board would recommend the all-cash deal to shareholders.

SoftBank will pay £17 a share for the Cambridge-based company – 43% more than ARM’s closing share price on Friday and 41% more than ARM’s all-time high closing share price. ARM shareholders will also received an interim dividend of 3.78p a share.

Stuart Chambers, the chairman of ARM said: “This is a compelling offer for ARM shareholders, which secures the delivery of future value today and in cash. The board of ARM is reassured that ARM will remain a very significant UK business and will continue to play a key role in the development of new technology.”

The deal was hailed by the new chancellor, Philip Hammond, who said: “Just three weeks after the referendum decision, it shows that Britain has lost none of its allure to international investors. Britain is open for business – and open to foreign investment.”

He added: “Softbank’s decision confirms that Britain remains one of the most attractive destinations globally for investors to create jobs and wealth. And as ARM’s founders will testify, this is the greatest place in the world to start and grow a technology business.

SoftBank has promised to at least double ARM’s number of UK employees and to increase headcount outside the UK over the next five years. It will keep ARM’s organisation and senior management.

The deal would be one of the largest in European technology to date, and SoftBank’s largest ever, bigger than the £17bn ($22bn) acquisition of a controlling stake in wireless operator Sprint in 2013, a deal that left the group with hefty debts.

The announcement of the deal comes less than a month after the Japanese group’s founder, Masayoshi Son, scrapped his plans to leave the company. He said he wanted to develop Sprint and complete the transformation of SoftBank into an internet investment powerhouse.

SoftBank bought UK imaging specialist Apical earlier this year, a company that specialises in technology to allow computers to analyse images – replicating human vision using software.

Although ARM’s microchips are famed as the brains behind the iPhone, fewer than half the 15bn produced to its design last year were used in smartphones. The rest were used in the many everyday devices that now require processing power, such as washing machines and televisions. It is believed SoftBank thinks that it can use its investment in ARM to exploit this growing market, known as the “internet of things”.

The deal comes just weeks after Britain voted to leave the European Union, battering sterling and bolstering the yen.