이 기사는 2022년 04월 01일 08시06분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korean semiconductor manufacturer SK hynix may be the latest to attempt to acquire British chip design specialist Arm, owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group, as global regulators challenge more tech deals on antitrust grounds.

SK hynix vice chairman Park Jung-ho said the chipmaker is exploring ways to invest in Arm in partnership with other companies in response to a reporter’s question after the company’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.

The remark comes after Park, who is also vice chairman of SK Square, mentioned that SK Group's investment holding company “is considering acquiring Arm” during its general meeting on Tuesday.


Arm is the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property company, counting global firms Apple, Google, Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics among its customers. This would make the UK firm an attractive acquisition target to many tech giants, including not only SK hynix but potentially Samsung Electronics, another South Korean chipmaker seeking to strengthen its non-memory chip business.

SK hynix’s potential attempt to buy Arm would most likely face steep regulatory hurdles, especially given Nvidia’s failure to acquire the chip designer. The US semiconductor giant in 2020 agreed to buy Arm for $40 billion from SoftBank, but called off the deal in February after regulators raised antitrust concerns.

Regulatory scrutiny over tech mergers has increased globally, with more deals blocked by regulators over antitrust and national security concerns. SK hynix is considering forming a consortium to acquire Arm, probably because that could ease antitrust problems.

Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger also told Reuters in February that the US chipmaker would be interested in participating if a consortium emerges to own Arm.

Toshiba Memory deal

SK hynix previously joined a consortium to acquire Toshiba Memory, later renamed Kioxia Holdings. The consortium, led by US private equity firm Bain Capital, consisted of companies from the US, South Korea and Japan, including SK hynix, Hoya Corporation, Apple, Dell Technologies, Kingston Technology and Seagate Technology.

SK hynix poured 4 trillion won ($3.3 billion) into the deal, which comprised 2.7 trillion won invested in Bain Capital’s fund and 1.3 trillion won in convertible bonds issued by the memory chip unit of Toshiba.

The deal closed in June 2018 after receiving all required antitrust approvals. Because of the way the deal was structured, SK hynix may get capital gains from its investment while being unable to be involved in the management of Kioxia. Industry experts said at the time the deal was meaningful as it prevented the Japanese chipmaker from being acquired by US rivals such as Micron and Western Digital or Chinese semiconductor companies.

Arm supplies its chip technology to almost all the world's major tech companies. “In the (semiconductor) ecosystem, any attempt by any firm to take over Arm on its own would not be successful so we are exploring ways to acquire it together with partners,” Park said.

“That seems quite possible,” an industry insider said of Park’s remarks. “A potential deal for Arm could be structured in a way that SK hynix invests as a limited partner and buy partners’ holdings in the chip designer later through separate shareholder agreements.” (Reporting by Hye-ran Kim)