SoftBank confirms creation of 1,700 UK jobs as part of £24bn Arm takeover
Japan’s SoftBank will create more than 1,700 UK jobs at Cambridge-based electronic chip maker Arm following its £24bn takeover of the company.
Under the terms of the deal, SoftBank will at least double the UK headcount of Arm within five years.
Read more: UK tech investors are incredibly happy about Softbank's $100bn fund
The Japanese lender will also, under the binding post-offer undertakings of the deal, retain Cambridge as Arm’s global headquarters and increase the number of non-UK Arm employees in this period.
As part of this process, the companies today published employee number details as at 5 September.
The London Stock Exchange announcement revealed there were 4,401 Arm employees on this date, including 1,749 in the UK.
Read more: May faces call for disclosure over Arm Holdings' £24bn sale to Softbank
Some 76.7 per cent of these were considered technical employees, and SoftBank has pledged to retain this relative proportion over the five years.
The non-UK employee count was 2,652.
This is believed to be the first time post-offer undertakings, as defined in the UK Takeover Code, have been used in the takeover of a British company.
Accountancy firm Grant Thornton will supervise the process to ensure the conditions are met.