Arm, one of Britain’s biggest technology companies, is cutting hundreds of staff weeks after a $40bn (£31bn) deal to sell the company to Nvidia fell apart, The Telegraph can reveal.
Rene Haas, the chief executive, told staff on Monday that the redundancies would affect 12pc to 15pc of Arm’s global workforce.
The company has about 4,400 staff and almost 1,800 in the UK, meaning the cuts could affect more than 600 employees.
Arm, which designs the microchips in billions of electronic devices such as smartphones, is planning to go public within the next year after its Japanese owner, SoftBank, called off a sale to Nvidia amid opposition from regulators.
Mr Haas told staff that most of the losses would be in the UK and US, saying the company had to be more “disciplined about costs”.
“This is going to be a tough time for everyone, so I want to be clear on why we are doing this,” he said, according to an email seen by The Telegraph.
“To be successful in the opportunities we have ahead of us, we need to be more disciplined about our costs and where we’re investing. To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done. It’s essential that we focus on activities that will move our strategy forward at pace.”
Arm embarked on a rapid hiring spree after SoftBank acquired the company for £24bn in 2016, promising to double staff over five years.
Simon Segars, its former chief executive, had warned that its levels of investment would not be sustainable if the company was forced to go public instead of being sold to Nvidia.
Mr Haas said the company would seek to help staff move to other jobs.
“I write this knowing that although it is the right thing to do for Arm’s future, this is not going to be easy,” he said.
Arm recently unveiled an increase in revenue and Mr Haas had said the company was well positioned to keep investing.
He also recently oversaw the departure of several key executives.
An Arm spokesman said: “Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline. Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm’s global workforce.”
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