The Japanese tech conglomerate #SoftBank announced yesterday that it was buying the chip maker #ARM for a whopping $31.4 billion in cash. There are some straightforward explanations for why this deal took place. The UK's decision to exit the European Union caused the value of the pound to plummet, making a cash takeover much cheaper now than any time in recent history. And ARM has also been growing rapidly while generating profits. But there is another, more interesting rationale behind the acquisition. SoftBank's founder and CEO, Masayoshi Son, has a reputation for eclectic interests and big bets. While most of his business career has focused on the telecom sector, his purchase of ARM brings SoftBank deep into the world of hardware. That would position it to reap the rewards of new explosion in computing driven by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. Here's a revealing quote he gave to the Nikkei Asian Review last month:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/19/12225082/softbank-arm-singularity-masayoshi-son
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