Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consulted experts in the field before publicly welcoming the acquisition of ARM Holdings by SoftBank, and whether they would similarly welcome a rival bid from an international private equity investor.

SoftBank has made it clear that it intends to invest in ARM, keep its HQ in the UK, and at least double the employee headcount in the UK. The Government welcomes this. No rival bids for ARM have so far been made.