Legal battle with Chinese unit holds up Arm IPO plans

[Daniel Sims]

Why it matters: Arm owner SoftBank has resorted to floating the company after failing to sell it to Nvidia, but those plans are coming up against a legal fight that started in 2020. It involves Arm’s Chinese joint venture.

The Financial Times obtained documents indicating a legal challenge from the head of Arm China, which is jeopardizing the main British company’s plans for an initial public offering (IPO). It's is the third such challenge in a nearly two-year battle.

SoftBank is opting for an Arm IPO after regulators blocked it from selling the company to Nvidia for $40 billion last week. However, Investors may have trouble valuing Arm because it has been unable to oust the head of the Chinese division.

In 2020, Arm China’s board voted almost unanimously to remove its head, Allen Wu. Wu ignored the vote and maintained control of the company because he is its legal representative and possesses its official seal, which Chinese law requires to enact official documents.

Wu also controls a key investment firm that gives him power over most of Arm China’s shareholders. He’s using one of those shareholder companies to launch his latest case against Arm China, which is ultimately stopping SoftBank from listing the primary Arm division on New York’s Nasdaq exchange.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93398-legal-battle-chinese-unit-holds-up-arm-ipo.html

 

[psycros]

Imagine if these were the kinds of problems you had every day, constantly maneuvering to maximize your billions and influence over of thousands of lives.

 

[Ben1978]

I was wowed by this story when I first heard of it. A local using the enforced partnership rule to take over the local branch of a multinational. And the WTO member country does **** all to stop it.

 

[OortCloud]

If ever there was a lesson in why selling an part of your business to China is a bad idea this is it.

(That is if you conveniently skip past the moral issues of investing in a regime that put racial minorities in concentration camps, use tanks to murder their own student population when they try to force change, annex foreign protectorates, and side with every crackpot and authoritarian they can find as long as they help them destabilise the west, regardless of the atrocities they might have committed)

 

[Lounds]

From what I gather GCHQ in the UK basically have the key to backdoor access to all arm devices in the world. I assume the Chinese part is to stop UK authorities having this level of access for National security. Arm going IPO would be the best option for SoftBank with them being the main shareholder, they would likely make a lot more money in the long run than the Nvidia deal.

 

[mbrowne5061]

From what I gather GCHQ in the UK basically have the key to backdoor access to all arm devices in the world. I assume the Chinese part is to stop UK authorities having this level of access for National security. Arm going IPO would be the best option for SoftBank with them being the main shareholder, they would likely make a lot more money in the long run than the Nvidia deal.

Really? Because from what I gather, Arm China is the one with the backdoor access, and that was the reason for the vote to remove Wu (and the reason he ignored the vote), and to take the company out of China.

 

[Lounds]

Really? Because from what I gather, Arm China is the one with the backdoor access, and that was the reason for the vote to remove Wu (and the reason he ignored the vote), and to take the company out of China.

Yeah it's very loosely mentioned in the media that British services have access to it. The media is very shady on how they report it, it's very subtle.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Yeah it's very loosely mentioned in the media that British services have access to it. The media is very shady on how they report it, it's very subtle.

Its also very loosely mentioned in media that the CCP has access to it. Its very subtle.
I can "cite" sources too.

 

[Lounds]

Its also very loosely mentioned in media that the CCP has access to it. Its very subtle.
I can "cite" sources too.

I can believe it. This level of access should have never been an option.