SoftBank's Arm set for $54.5 billion valuation in IPO, pricing to be decided today: Report
Arm may price its IPO above the indicated price range and will decide on how much it will sell its shares for on Wednesday, that source and a second person with knowledge of the matter said. The shares are scheduled to start trading in New York on Thursday. Arm was considering publishing a revised price range that would have been higher, reflecting the strong investor demand.
It decided against such a move, adhering to its more conservative approach to marketing the offering, the sources said. Pricing the approximately $5 billion IPO conservatively raises the chances of the shares trading strongly at their debut on Thursday, the sources added. The sources requested anonymity because the matter is confidential.
Arm and SoftBank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The valuation that Arm has been seeking thus far represents a climb-down from the $64 billion valuation at which SoftBank last month acquired the 25% stake it did not already own in the company from the $100 billion Vision Fund it manages. Yet even with this lower valuation, SoftBank would fare better than its $40 billion deal to sell Arm to Nvidia Corp, which it abandoned last year amid opposition from antitrust regulators.
SoftBank took Arm private in 2016 for $32 billion. Arm has already signed up many of its major clients as cornerstone investors in its IPO, including Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Samsung Electronics. Arm launched its IPO marketing efforts last week, seeking to convince investors it has growth ahead of it, beyond the mobile phone market, which it dominates with a 99% share.
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