Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, March 15 (TMTPOST) — Multinational chip-making company Arm has confirmed that it is planning to lay off 12%-15% of its staff globally.

“Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline,” the company said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm’s global workforce.”

The company’s CEO Rene Haas said in a memo to staff that Arm will cut 12%-15% of staff in the UK and the United States, said a source familiar with the matter.

Arm is currently preparing for an IPO (initial public offering) and will streamline its business operation by cutting as much as 15% of its staff, which will impact around 1,000 jobs at the company. It is worth noting that most of the job cuts will not affect engineers, a source familiar with the matter said.

SoftBank has started to seek to cash in on its investment in Arm through an initial public offering after the acquisition deal with Nvidia was cancelled due to regulatory problems. It was reported earlier that Arm might choose to go public in the United States on Nasdaq instead of on a local stock market in its home country.

See also: ARM to Go Public in the United States

Established in November 1990, Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England. Its primary business is in the design of ARM processors, which can be found on a variety of modern technologies, including the SoC (system on chip) on smartphones. The company has been owned by conglomerate SoftBank Group since 2016. It was announced in September 2020 that Nvidia would buy Arm from SoftBank for US$40 billion, with the latter acquiring a 10% stake in Nvidia. The deal later collapsed due to regulatory hurdles.