ARM men sell £8.5m shares
SENIOR figures at ARM Holdings, the Cambridge-based microprocessor designer, have cashed out £8.5m worth of shares after the stock soared on speculation its technology is used in Apple’s new iPad.
Chief executive Warren East raised £1.8m by selling 937,000 shares last week, leaving him with around 1m shares. Other members reducing their stakes included finance director Tim Score, who has collected £1.9m over the past fortnight, and founder Tudor Brown who collected £1.2m.
ARM’s share price rose 11.8 per cent between the New Year and the start of this month, hitting an all-time high of 205.2p on 3 February. Rumours have abounded that the iPad, the touch-screen tablet computer, runs on an ARM-based processor created by the Palo Alto Semiconductor team Apple brought on board in 2008.
Although Apple created the processor itself, it would pay ARM a fee for using its intellectual property if parts of the design were licensed from the British company.
Founded in 1990, ARM employs around 1,700 people. The company licenses its ideas to more than 200 customers, including Samsung and Nvidia, who create their own takes on ARM’s core microchip designs.