• The Verge, Tuesday, September 6, 2016 9:05 AM

SoftBank surprised the technology world with a plan to acquire British chip designer ARM Holdings for £23.4 billion ($31.4 billion) back in July, the biggest ever purchase of a European technology company. After less than two months, SoftBank is announcing today that the transaction is complete. The total acquisition price is approximately £24 billion ($31 billion), and ARM will now be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange tomorrow. SoftBank's purchase of ARM is the latest in a line of acquisitions in recent years for the Japanese company, including the $20 billion Sprint acquisition, and a $15 billion investment in Vodafone's Japanese division. ARM is well known for designing chips and licensing them to companies like Apple and Samsung, and ARM-designed chips dominate mobile computing in phones and tablets. 15 billion ARM-designed chips shipped last year alone, and around half of those were in mobile devices.

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