Heads of Samsung, SoftBank meet as attention grows on sale of Arm

October 6, 2022



By Baek Byung-yeul

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, met with Masayoshi Son, founder and chairman of Japan's SoftBank, in Seoul on Tuesday, according to industry sources, Wednesday, amid rising expectations of a looming acquisition of chip architecture design company Arm by the Korean electronics giant. SoftBank purchased Arm for $32 billion in 2016.

However, no specific discussion apparently took place this time about an acquisition.

The Samsung Group leader and SoftBank founder met at Samsung's office in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul, to discuss various pending issues, according to the sources. Son entered Korea through Gimpo International Airport on Oct. 1 for a week-long business trip.

Rather than talking about Samsung's acquisition of Arm, the two chiefs are said to have discussed possible areas of cooperation.

Also present at the meeting were Kyung Kye-hyun, president and head of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division, Roh Tae-moon, president and head of Samsung Electronics' smartphone division, and Rene Haas, CEO of Arm.

When asked about the meeting, a Samsung Electronics spokesman said, "We cannot confirm this matter."

Industry watchers believe there could be progress in Samsung's acquisition of Arm after the two leaders met, because Lee made the rare move of commenting on the issue to reporters last month.

"SoftBank Chairman Son Jeong-ui (known as Masayoshi Son in Japan) will come to Seoul next month. I think he probably will make a proposal at that time," the Samsung chief told reporters who asked him about the visit after Lee returned from a two-week business trip to Europe and Latin America on Sept. 21.

Established in 1990, Arm generates profits by licensing its intellectual property related to mobile chip architecture design to other companies such as Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung. Arm holds a 90-percent share of the chip architecture design market for mobile devices.

In 2020, SoftBank agreed to sell a 100-percent stake in Arm to U.S. graphic chip giant Nvidia for $40 billion. But the deal fell through after Nvidia failed to gain approval from the fair trade bodies of countries deeply involved in the chip industry.

Since then, SoftBank has been looking for another company to buy Arm and Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker, has been consistently mentioned as a candidate. Samsung could significantly improve its chip design competitiveness by acquiring Arm, according to analysts. But industry watchers view that chances are slim for Samsung to purchase Arm alone. The Korean electronics giant is expected to form a consortium to acquire the U.K-based company.

Top executives at Samsung also seem to be reticent about the company's acquisition of Arm.

On Wednesday, Han Jong-hee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, said, "It is difficult to say due to security matters," when asked by reporters about the possibility of Samsung's acquisition of Arm on the sidelines of the Korea Electronics Show at the Coex convention center in Seoul.

Selected articles from The Korea Times