Image source @ Visual China
Arm China's power grab, which lasted for two years, now has an important turning point.
On April 29, the British chip design company Arm (Anmou) China joint venture Anmou China confirmed to Titanium Media App this morning that according to the unanimous resolution of the board of directors of Anmou Technology (China) Co., Ltd. in accordance with the company's articles of association and relevant laws and regulations, Mr. Liu Renchen and Mr. Chen Ke were appointed as co-CEOs of Anmou China, and the industrial and commercial registration was completed in accordance with the law.
"Liu Renchen and Chen Ke will jointly lead the Anmou China team to ensure that the company operates as usual and continues to provide customers with high-quality products and services." Anmou China will uphold its original intention, maintain close cooperation with Arm, and work with partners at home and abroad to move forward on the road of supporting innovation in China's technology industry. The company said in a statement.
It is reported that Arm is a leading global semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider, mainly doing chip design and IP licensing, providing underlying architecture and chip "power" support for mobile device processors of companies such as Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm, and is currently the first enterprise in the market share of chip IP. In 2016, SoftBank spent $32 billion to acquire Arm and privatize it from the New York Stock Exchange.
Anmou China is a joint venture established by Arm in China in 2018, and it is also the only licensing platform for Arm Technology IP in China, with partners including Ali, Tsinghua Unigroup Zhanrui, Huawei, etc., which is extremely important to China's chip semiconductor industry. As the largest single shareholder of the joint venture, Arm holds a 47.33% stake in Anmou China.
In June 2020, Arm joined forces with SoftBank and other shareholders to try to oust Wu Xiongang, chairman and CEO of Anmou China, but Wu Xiongang refused to hand over the company's official seal, and the recall was deadlocked. Arm shareholders subsequently filed a lawsuit against Wu Xiongang in Shenzhen over the control of the company, but the trial could not be held. (For details, see the titanium media App above: "Arm China coaching storm start and end |.) Titanium Media Depth")
On February 8 this year, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and SoftBank jointly announced that due to significant regulatory obstacles, the two parties will terminate the previous acquisition of Arm from SoftBank by Nvidia. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said Arm will begin preparations for an independent listing and plans to complete its IPO by March 31, 2023, with a market capitalization expected to reach $50 billion (about 316.7 billion yuan). (For details, see the titanium media App above: "NVIDIA's acquisition of Arm plan failed, cross-border semiconductor mergers and acquisitions are difficult to reproduce?") 》）
At the Arm listing media interview on February 9, Arm's new CEO Rene Haas revealed that thanks to the booming domestic chip market and Arm's layout in many fields, the financial performance of the Chinese joint venture in 2021 is extremely outstanding. Prior to the listing, Arm Global needs to conduct a consolidated audit of the operating income of the joint venture company in order to successfully go public.
In April, Arm announced that for internal accounting-related reasons, Arm had transferred its stake in Anmou China to a company jointly owned and controlled by Arm and SoftBank. Arm will continue to hold an equity stake in Anmou China through the company. The move will have no impact on Arm's ecosystem in China. The IP licensing agreement and profit model between Arm and Anmou China remain unchanged. (For details, see the previous article of the Titanium Media App: "Sun Zhengyi decided to transfer the equity of Anmou China in order to accelerate the listing of Arm Company")
However, Wu Xiongang said in an interview with the media on April 28 that he was not aware of the transfer of shares, believing that it was a deliberate lie made up by SoftBank.
"If SoftBank wants Arm to go public as soon as possible, there is no problem in auditing Anmou Technology, and as the CEO of the company, providing accurate operating data is a legal responsibility that needs to be borne." We have never said that we are unwilling to accept audits, Andmou Technology will be audited by the audit company every year, and we do not think that there will be problems with the audit of Anmou Technology. But the truth is that Arm has not sent any documents related to the audit requirements, which is a problem with SoftBank. Wu Xiongang said.
Liu Renchen, Vice President of the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen
For Arm China's newly appointed CEO, according to public reports, Dr. Liu Renchen graduated from Tsinghua University and Oxford University, and is currently the vice president of the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, the general manager of Shenzhen Qingyan Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. and the director of Shenzhen Tongshan Lixing Co., Ltd. Among them, the Shenzhen Tsinghua University Research Institute is a public institution jointly established by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and Tsinghua University to operate in an enterprise-oriented manner.
According to industrial and commercial information, the legal representative of Anmou China has been changed from Wu Xiongang to Liu Renchen.
Another Arm China CO-CEO, Dr. Chen Ke, is the managing partner of SoftBank Vision Fund, a U.S. national, born in October 1969, with a doctoral degree. From April 2008 to June 2015, Chen Ke served as the Managing Director of Silver Lake Capital, and from November 2011 to May 2014, he was the Chairman of China Haoye Network Group.
In March 2018, Chen joined the SoftBank Vision Fund, founded by SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son, whose backers include Saudi Arabia's public investment fund, Apple in the United States and Qualcomm, and invested in projects such as Didi and ByteDance. According to the Titanium Media App, Chen Ke is the mediator behind arm China's turmoil and the spokesperson appointed by Son Zhengyi to the board of directors of Anmou China.
Eric Chen, Managing Partner, SoftBank Vision Fund
For the change of CEO and the "dismissal" of Arm, Wu Xiongang responded yesterday: "Recently, SoftBank and Arm have continuously thrown dirty water on Anmou Technology and me through foreign media, but the real situation is that SoftBank in order to cover up its own problems through this move, as well as retaliation for my refusal to cooperate with them to do illegal acts." I would like to warn all parties that capital cannot take precedence over Chinese law. ”
It is worth noting that only the co-CEO of this change, business administration shows that the position of chairman of Anmou China has not been appointed.
In response to the statement released by Arm this morning, Titanium Media App asked Wu Xiongang for verification, but as of press time, it has not received a reply.
(This article was first published on titanium media App, author | Lin Zhijia)