By Peter Clarke
What’s at stake:
The semiconductor and broader financial markets want to draw a line under a couple of years of lackluster performance, caused by political turmoil and economic recession. If successful, an IPO by Arm – one of very few in recent quarters – could signal that confidence is ready to return, helping unleash pent-up demand for deals and technology sales optimism. Wall Street and the markets could be “off to the races.”
Arm Ltd. is set to go public but the transaction is dogged by controversy – just like almost everything about the semiconductor IP vendor in recent years. A successful debut will be cheered by Wall Street, Arm’s customers and other chip enterprises. If the IPO has to be pulled or priced low to gain support, however, it could signal that caution will prevail in the markets generally. Worse, still, SoftBank Group and Arm may be perceived as yesterday’s heroes.