SK Hynix: The joint acquisition of ARM has not yet been advanced

According to SK hynix's announcement, the company is studying various strategic plans to strengthen its business competitiveness and improve its corporate value, but the joint acquisition of ARM has not yet been advanced.

In this regard, according to BusinessKorea, experts said that ARM is losing its attractiveness as a takeover target because SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son offered a price far higher than the actual value.

SK Hynix had expressed interest in acquiring ARM in March, noting that it was reviewing various strategic options, including a joint acquisition of ARM, to improve business competitiveness and enhance corporate value. However, SK Hynix recently stated in its public disclosure at the end of October that it would not jointly acquire ARM.

It is reported that the ARM acquisition case has experienced several twists and turns since last year. After Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM was officially broken in February this year, Intel CEO Henry Kissinger and Qualcomm CEO Ammon expressed their intention to jointly acquire ARM. Analysts, however, said that no deal was struck due to Son's very high offer for ARM.

Earlier in 2016, SoftBank Group acquired ARM for $32 billion. When SoftBank Group planned to sell ARM to Nvidia in 2020, it failed due to regulatory opposition.

ARM's 2021 revenue is $2.7 billion and net profit is $1 billion. Although there are differences in the valuation system, if the median price-earnings ratio of the top ten US stocks in the semiconductor product and equipment category is 18 times, the valuation of ARM is about 18 billion US dollars. ARM's valuation tops out at $38 billion, a far cry from a valuation of more than $60 billion. According to semiconductor industry insiders, ARM's enterprise value is no more than $50 billion.