Arm Unloads IoT Unit

Arm is unloading its IoT unit onto its parent Softbank, taking the operation off the Arm balance sheet.

Arm’s two IoT businesses, IoT Platform and Treasure Data will be transferred by the end of September.

Moving away from its core business of designing processor IP was a controversial move for Arm because it looked as if they were competing with their customers.

With every semiconductor company making products for a market which is still slow to emerge, it  became an increasingly unjustifiable diversion.

However when Softbank bought Arm in 2016 it pushed Arm into diversifying away from designing cores and IoT was seen as the fashionable market.

In 2018 Arm bought IoT startups Treasure Data and Stream Technologies.  The IoT product is called the Pelion IoT Platform which uses the Mbed open-source OS.

Arm was loss-making last year losing £90 million in Q2 and another $11 million in Q3.

When it bought Arm, Softbank promised to double Arm’s UK headcount within five years. Arm had 1,747 UK staff when Softbank bought it. Last year it had 2,742 and needed between 700 and 800 people to achieve the target. Now, presumably, it may need more.

“Arm believes there are great opportunities in the symbiotic growth of data and compute,” Says Arm CEO Simon Segars, “SoftBank’s experience in managing fast-growing, early-stage businesses would enable ISG to maximize its value in capturing the data opportunity. Arm would be in a stronger position to innovate in our core IP roadmap and provide our partners with greater support to capture the expanding opportunities for compute solutions across a range of markets.”