[HN Gopher] Arm jumps 18% in market debut to notch $60B valuation
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       Arm jumps 18% in market debut to notch $60B valuation
        
       Author : mfiguiere
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2023-09-14 19:25 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | pyrophane wrote:
       | From an FT article:
       | 
       | > SoftBank discussed with underwriters on Wednesday whether to
       | price Arm shares above the initial range, at $52, but settled on
       | the lower figure in the belief shares would trade up and boost
       | confidence in overall markets after nearly two years of pressure
       | on valuations.
       | 
       | > "So many people, including SoftBank and all the underwriters,
       | have so much riding on the overall health of the IPO market,"
       | said one person close to the Arm listing.
       | 
       | Makes sense given that SoftBank and its underwriters would like
       | to have many more IPOs, and the fear that a poor showing here
       | could draw out the current "IPO winter" seems reasonable.
        
         | lvl102 wrote:
         | They probably got 3-4x what they would've been able to get with
         | UK IPO.
        
         | SeanAnderson wrote:
         | That's super interesting! 4D chess move to be sure, but also
         | kind of crazy that companies plan strategies around affecting
         | the entire world market based off of their behavior.
        
       | rendang wrote:
       | I saw a twitter commentator point out that this is higher than
       | the $40B Nvidia wanted to buy it for. Argument was that stricter
       | antitrust could actually lead to greater shareholder value.
        
         | TradingPlaces wrote:
         | Also keep in mind that Softbank was going to keep part of the
         | company (IoT) in the Nvidia deal.
        
         | blibble wrote:
         | the IPO is only for a fraction of the company's shares
         | 
         | whereas the $40B would have been for 100% of them
        
           | TradingPlaces wrote:
           | The valuation includes the shares Softbank kept (~90%)
        
             | alex_young wrote:
             | Current share price is only the price the last trade was
             | made at. It would be remarkable if the other 90% could sell
             | for anywhere near that number. Comparing an offer for the
             | entire company to selling 10% to the public is a bit
             | lopsided.
        
               | TradingPlaces wrote:
               | That is why they only sold 10%. They think they can keep
               | market depth thin, raise the price, and sell more over
               | time at higher prices when they need cash. This is
               | exactly what Intel is doing with Mobileye. It's a piggy
               | bank that they will break open from time to time.
        
               | blibble wrote:
               | which is why it's meaningless to try to equate market cap
               | with an unconditional instantaneous purchase of all
               | outstanding shares
        
               | arcticbull wrote:
               | Generally if you want to buy the whole thing / take it
               | private, you have to pay out all shareholders in cash the
               | public market price plus a premium - you definitely don't
               | get a discount.
               | 
               | Just look at what happened to Elon.
        
               | blibble wrote:
               | you don't know what the public market price is for the
               | vast majority of the shares that weren't sold today
        
               | arcticbull wrote:
               | I don't know what that means - but when an individual or
               | a company looks to buy out another company wholesale,
               | they do in fact use the public market price, multiply it
               | out by the full share cap, and then add a premium on top.
        
           | cunac wrote:
           | market cap is same as 100% of shares so it is $25B more than
           | Nvidia price
        
             | blibble wrote:
             | only if you assume there is the same level of instantaneous
             | demand for a supply of 10x as many shares
             | 
             | definitely not the case
        
               | arcticbull wrote:
               | That is what you assume when you look to take a company
               | private.
        
       | karim79 wrote:
       | Am I crazy in thinking that $60(ish) billion feels like very
       | little when considering the value brought about by the paradigm
       | shifts and hugely successful products (iPhone/Apple M chips/most
       | of the SoC's on just about every phone) made possible by its chip
       | architectures? Makes Twitter/X seem _hugely_ overvalued, to
       | provide one comparison which makes me scratch my head a bit. I
       | guess I truly know nothing about anything.
        
         | TradingPlaces wrote:
         | They let their customers make most of the money, which is how
         | they grew the ecosystem with all the network effects. Just as
         | an example, Qualcomm is a 10% customer of ARM, and they made
         | $38b in chip revenue in fiscal 2022. ARM had $2.7b. Now they
         | want more, and are going to push people to RISC-V if they're
         | not careful
        
         | ars wrote:
         | You should price it against the replacement value - what would
         | it cost to replace ARM? (Or Twitter/X for that matter - in the
         | later case you need to include the marketing needed to match
         | their current userbase.)
         | 
         | The paradigm shift is utterly irrelevant to their market value.
        
         | Etheryte wrote:
         | The chip architecture produces a lot of value, yes, but Arm
         | itself does not capture most of that value.
        
         | silisili wrote:
         | I tend to agree, but also realize most phones run on razor thin
         | if not negative margins. Stocks are all about looking long
         | term, and as an investor I'd have concerns about the rise of
         | RISCV or other 'free' ISAs on that horizon.
        
           | arcticbull wrote:
           | Only Apple (85% of global profit share) and Samsung (12%)
           | have positive margins on smartphones. [1]
           | 
           | [1] https://macdailynews.com/2023/08/04/apple-iphone-
           | dominates-w...
        
       | qlkjwenf wrote:
       | Yeah, Softbank... They evaluated WeWork at ~50 billions and a few
       | months later it was worth almost zero. If you work with SoftBank
       | prepare to lose everything.
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-14 23:01 UTC)