Hacker News Reader

Comment by photonbeam | Hacker News Reader

The lack of detail is troubling, will new prospective shareholders be happy about pricing given the sheer time length.

Was Apple trying to get this in specifically before IPO

I believe Apple was a founding investor in ARM and has a perpetual license to much (all?) of ARM’s IP. I’m not sure ARM’s prospective shareholders should ever have expected much revenue from Apple.

Apple could still potentially pay to get some say in ARM'S design decisions or be able to direct part of their resources to their needs.

Fair enough, but I don't expect ARM investors are expecting that to be substantial revenue.

Anything that sounds like Apple making a 15+ year commitment to the ARM platform is going to benefit ARM's IPO massively, so the real question is what Apple got from this.

Stability, legal leverage. It’s likely been hashed out in response to nVidia’s attempt to buy ARM.

https://www.gq.com/story/tim-cook-global-creativity-awards-c...

Tim Cook: we are very much focused on the long term.

If ARM ends up being acquired, Apple can unleash the lawyers to demand adherence to their 40 year deal.

> If ARM ends up being acquired, Apple can unleash the lawyers to demand adherence to their 40 year deal.

Hate to break it to you but it’s not 2003 anymore. It’s barely a 20 year deal.

Whoops; mental math fail at bedtime.

Not sure that undermines the premise it’s about locking down IP access on Apple’s term’s. An ARM buyer or even just new management will have a harder time coming in and jacking up prices on Apple before 2040.

> Was Apple trying to get this in specifically before IPO

Only, I'm sure, to the degree it gave them some advantage in negotiating with ARM.

ARM's IPO is troubled, for reasons I haven't been following, but I am sure this helps them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com