(Reuters) – SoftBank Group Corp’s chip company Arm Holdings Ltd has gathered takeover interest from Nvidia Corp, Bloomberg News reported https://bloom.bg/30R4Kh5 on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia and SoftBank did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Arm declined to comment on the report.
SoftBank, which acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016, is exploring options including a full or partial sale or a public offering of the British chip designer, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
The Japanese conglomerate had recently approached Apple Inc to gauge its interest but the latter is not planning to pursue a bid, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Arm’s licensing operation would fit poorly with Apple’s hardware and software focused business model and there may also be regulatory concerns about Apple owning a key licensee that supplies so many rivals, according to the report. Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
SoftBank last month unveiled a series of transactions to divest more than $21 billion worth of stock in U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc, as it seeks funding for a $41 billion share buyback and debt reduction plan.
(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil with additional reporting by Vishal Vivek in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. and Sriraj Kalluvila)
