ARM Revenues Up 17 Percent Ahead Of £24bn Softbank Takeover

Processor licensing revenues at ARM rose by 24 percent during the second quarter of 2016, helping total revenues jump by 17 percent to £267.6 million and profits rise by five percent to £130.1 million ahead of the company’s proposed £24 billion takeover by Japanese giant Softbank.

Revenues for the first half of the 2016 financial year rose by 19 percent to £544.1 million

ARM does not manufacture any chips itself and instead licneses its designs to other companies such as Qualcomm. ARM’s low power technology is used the vast majority of mobile devices and it has expanded into other areas, such as Internet of Things (IoT) and data centres, in recent times.

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ARM revenues

The company signed 25 processor licences over the past three months and 3.6 billion ARM chips were shipped over the same period.

“Our royalty revenue growth continues to outperform the wider semiconductor industry, driven by market share gains and the increasing adoption of ARM’s latest technologies,” boasted CEO Simon Segars.

“With more end-users selecting ARM technology for products ranging from sensors to satellites to supercomputers, we expect this outperformance will continue. ARM is continuing to invest in products that will support our partners’ roadmaps as they develop next-generation technologies such as 5G networks, autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things.

“Our recent acquisition of Apical enhances our expertise in visual computing, a rapidly-advancing field which is enabling smart buildings, augmented reality, self-driving cars and advanced robotics. As new technologies are created and new markets emerge, ARM will continue to evolve its products and business models to capture the opportunities ahead.”

ARM declined to give any revenue forecasts because of the pending Softbank acquisition, first announced last week. Softbank has promised to double ARM’s UK-based workforce and increase its overseas employee count over the next five years – and has pledged to keep the company’s headquarters in Cambridge.

As of April 2016, ARM had 4,064 full time employees globally, including 1,609 in the UK.