ARM Takeover Is A Blow For UK Tech Industry

Unlike its rival chip designer Intel (Euronext: INCO.NX - news) , ARM never trademarked an annoying sound (the famous Intel 'bong' used to be broadcast about once every five minutes in the world).

If ARM had, it would have ruined every Apple and Samsung advert - and nearly every other make of phone.

It didn't, though, which might explain why people are underestimating the scale of this SoftBank deal , an acquisition of UK tech's biggest success story.

Those people shouldn't include the Chancellor though.

Commenting on the deal, Philip Hammond said SoftBank would "turn this great British company into a global phenomenon".

ARM chips are used in 95% of phones worldwide. It sold 15 billion chips last year.

It very much is already a global phenomenon, thank you very much.

And that's why this is a blow to the UK technology scene.

Hermann Hauser, partner at Amadeus Capital but heavily involved in the founding of ARM, told me it was a "sad day for British technology".

"ARM is the greatest thing I've done, so it's a very sad day for me personally, and for technology in Britain.

"It was the last remaining British technology company with global reach."

This isn't just a little Englander wistfulness about our diminishing ability to compete at the highest level of technology.

Although that is an important point: brilliant UK-based companies like Deepmind and ARM being bought by foreign owners means British ingenuity is contributing to other countries' tax revenues.

Hey, we've still got at least one world class tech organisation in GCHQ.

But it means we're much less involved in shaping the future.

Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of SoftBank, gave a press conference in London today after meeting the Chancellor.

He said he was investing in the next paradigm shift - the internet of things.

This is where you make a joke about connecting a fridge to the internet, but the internet of things is going to be huge and useful in ways we're only starting to glimpse right now.

Mr Son talked in particular about the automotive industry, especially when driverless cars arrive.

ARM is well placed to decide the architecture of that future.

Now SoftBank - along with the big chip manufactures, Intel and Qualcomm - will shape it from Tokyo.

The same goes for Google Deepmind. Artificial intelligence will be a huge sector.

Deepmind was at the cutting edge of it, but, for various reasons, decided its future was safer as part of Google.

ARM has made a similar calculation with SoftBank.

The Prime Minister said this was a vote of confidence from foreign investors in post-Brexit Britain, and it is.

But it's a diminishment of the British technology industry.