Jean-Louis Gassée at Monday Note on ARM’s business outlook:
None of these opportunities, from ubiquitous but low-end IoT devices, to high-end but low volume Cloud servers, promise higher revenues and profits… which might explain the generally expressed skepticism regarding the high $32B offered for the ARM Holdings acquisition.
Or maybe Masa Son is betting on a completely different factor. ARM has a de facto monopoly position on SOC and embedded applications. This leads to pricing power, an aspect that is, according to Warren Buffet, “the single most important decision in evaluating a business”.
Simple in theory, just turn the screw. Harder in practice when the largest volume opportunity is in the lowest price segment.
