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　　Samsung's proposed acquisition of ARM, a chip IP design company under SoftBank Group, may have been substantially shattered.

　　According to Reuters, citing local South Korean media reports, on October 4, local time, Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank Group, held talks with Samsung head Lee Jae-yong to discuss Arm Long-term cooperation with Samsung Electronics, but no proposal for Samsung to invest in ARM.

　　The industry expects that Samsung's plan to acquire ARM has officially fallen through.

　　Since Samsung's proposed acquisition of ARM did not jump out of the framework of Nvidia's failed acquisition, such a result is still within the expectations of industry insiders. South Korean media Infostock Daily quoted an official with knowledge of the details of the acquisition as saying that the two sides were pessimistic about the prospects after the meeting.

　　"It was difficult for us to overcome several key obstacles in front of the acquisition, so we chose to give up." The official said that the anti-monopoly review from the regulatory authorities of various countries is an insurmountable hurdle. At the same time, due to lack of funds, a company that originally planned to participate in Samsung's joint acquisition was absent from the meeting with Masayoshi Son.

　　In 2016, SoftBank Group acquired ARM for $32 billion. In 2020, when SoftBank Group planned to sell ARM to Nvidia, it aborted due to regulatory opposition. With Samsung's move to buy ARM on hold again, ARM may only be left with an IPO.

　　Affected by various factors such as geopolitics and the sharp drop in technology stocks, the road to ARM's listing still faces multiple considerations of listing location and timing.

　　ARM is currently the only remaining technology company in the UK with a global leadership position. In order to save the British semiconductor chip industry, the new British government is also actively promoting the dual listing of ARM in the United Kingdom and the United States. According to the latest Reuters news, the British minister is lobbying SoftBank Group with preferential policies such as taxation and R&D investment.

　　Taking into account the higher valuation, the US Nasdaq is the most ideal listing venue for Son. In June of this year, Masayoshi Son directly stated at SoftBank's 42nd shareholder meeting that most ARM customers are in Silicon Valley in the United States, and they are likely to choose to list on Nasdaq in the United States. However, as the UK government is actively involved, the listing location is still full of variables.

　　In addition, the stagnation of the global IPO market also affects whether ARM can conduct an IPO at a valuation of $60 billion.

　　According to the "Global IPO Trend Report for the Second Quarter of 2022" released by Ernst & Young, in the first half of 2022, the number of IPOs and financing scale of the two major US exchanges, the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, were higher than in 2021. Significant declines of 75% and 94% over the same period. As of press time, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed at 2,356.75, down 28% this year.

　　Data shows that Nvidia’s revenue in 2021 is $26.9 billion, net profit is $9.75 billion, the current market value is $300 billion, and the price-earnings ratio is 38.84 times; ASML’s revenue in 2021 is $21 billion, net profit is $66.62, and the current market value $174.8 billion, a price-earnings ratio of 29.69 times; AMD's 2021 revenue of $16.4 billion, a net profit of $3.162 billion, a current market value of $94.341 billion, and a price-earnings ratio of 30.14 times.

　　ARM's revenue in 2021 is $2.7 billion and its 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 is valued at up to $38 billion.

　　ARM's figure is consistent with the previous acquisition price of Nvidia, but it is far from Son's $60 billion expectation.

　　Recently, when revealing the progress of ARM's IPO, Sun Zhengyi said that because the current IPO market is relatively weak, according to market conditions, SoftBank is studying the best time in 2023.