SoftBank Group Corp’s sale of Arm Ltd to U.S. chipmaker Nvidia Corp has collapsed, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday, adding that Arm will plan for an IPO.
The deal has faced several regulatory hurdles, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission suing to block it in December. The buyout is also under the scrutiny of British and EU regulators amid concerns that it could push up prices and reduce choice and innovation.
The deal would give Nvidia control of Arm, which licenses its computing architecture to semiconductor firms that design chips for devices such as mobile phones.
Nvidia declined to comment. Arm and SoftBank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The value of the deal, which depends on Nvidia’s stock price, has been as much as $80 billion, though the California company’s stock has fallen.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argued in December that competition in the nascent markets for chips in self-driving cars and a new category of networking chips could be hurt if Nvidia carried out the purchase.
An Nvidia spokesperson in January, as questions over the future of the deal increased, said the company believed the acquisition “provides an opportunity to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation.”
The Financial Times was the first to report that Softbank’s Arm-Nvidia deal has collapsed.
The Japanese investment giant would receive a break-up fee of up to $1.25 billion, FT quoted one of the people as saying.
