ARM in Smarthphone JV

Source : RNS

 ARM Holdings PLC (ARM.LN), the U.K. semiconductor firm, Tuesday said it planned to create a joint venture with Gemalto N.V. and Giesecke & Devrient to develop a secure environment for smartphones, tablets and other devices.

Cambridge, England-based Arm said it would own 40% of the joint venture, with Amsterdam-based Gemalto N.V. and Germany’s Giesecke & Devrient owning 30% each. All of the companies will contribute assets, including cash, people, patents and intellectual property, with Arm contributing working capital and staff. The U.K. company said the cash it will contribute wouldn’t be significant in terms of its overall balance sheet, but didn’t elaborate.

Arm competes with chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) in the market for semiconductors to power computers and smartphones. Gemalto provides security software and services for different devices and Giesecke & Devrient makes SIM cards.

Although Intel dominates the overall chip market, smartphones and other handheld devices typically use Arm-based chips, mainly because those chips tend to draw less power and allow longer battery life in phones. In recent months, though, Intel has been aggressively trying to move into the handheld market, recently signing a distribution agreement with Google Inc. (GOOG) for its Android smartphone-operating system.