Chip designer ARM Holdings was the winning stock on the London Stock Exchange yesterday: The share price jumped 3.3 percent up at 251.1 pence. ARM led the FTSE index's growth of nearly one percent.
ARM architecture is used in advanced mobile phones from Nokia, Sony, Samsung, HTC and Apple, in the processor to Apple's web trencher iPad, as well as game machines such as Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. ARM was established in November 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple and VLSI Technology.
The cause of price rise for the ARM share is rumored that the company may be in the process of being acquired by Apple.
Apple's figures for the March quarter (see the article Apple sells as if it were back in July) showed that the company is sitting on cash reserves, worth a total of 41.7 billion U.S. dollars. The return of this wealth was not stated, but it has not happened in recent months to suggest that it should have been greater than in the December quarter, when it said the Wall Street Journal could be estimated at 0.75 percent, which must be regarded as relatively lonely.
It is known that Apple wants to use his fortune at more reasonable manner. Last year they hired an acquisitions specialist from the big bank Goldman Sachs, without it has led to larger acquisitions than that of PA Semi in 2008.
Financial Times refers to analysts who believe it is unlikely that Apple buys ARM. Apple is perceived to be more interested in obtaining access to specific technologies than a provider of an industry-standard ARM. Moreover, ARM's market of 3.2 billion pounds total 32 times as large as the company's expected profit.
The sources of the London Evening Standard said, however, it will be very beneficial for Apple to take over ARM because they will be able to gain an advantage by restricting competitors' access to ARM technology. These sources believe a bid for ARM can rise to 400 pence, and involve a total cost of over 5.2 billion pounds.
