Arm, the U.K.-based company behind ARM chip designs used in smartphones, Apple computers, and more, plans to cut almost 1,000 employees from its workforce.
The news comes after Arm’s parent company, Softbank, abandoned plans to sell Arm to Nvidia for $40 billion USD (roughly $51.1 billion CAD) due to “significant regulatory challenges.” Instead, Softbank planned to take Arm public.
The Telegraph reported that Arm’s chief executive, Rene Haas, told staff on Monday that the company could cut between 12 and 15 percent of employees. According to The Guardian, Arm has 6,500 employees worldwide — 15 percent would be about 975 employees.
Arm says the majority of the roles affected will be in its U.K. and U.S. workforces. The Telegraph saw an email sent by Haas, which said:
“This is going to be a tough time for everyone, so I want to be clear on why we are doing this.
“To be successful in the opportunities we have ahead of us, we need to be more disciplined about our costs and where we’re investing.
“To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done. It’s essential that we focus on activities that will move our strategy forward at pace.”
Moreover, The Telegraph reports that Haas says Arm will help staff move to other jobs.
It’s worth noting that Arm reported an increase in revenue earlier this year, and Haas said it put the company in a good position to keep investing.
However, The Telegraph reports that Arm’s former chief executive, Simon Segars, warned that Arm wouldn’t be able to sustain its current levels of investment if it went public instead of selling to Nvidia.
When reached for comment, an Arm spokesperson told The Telegraph that “Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline. Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm’s global workforce.”
Source: The Telegraph Via: The Verge
