As a local Cambridge 'hi-tech' person I am sad this has happened. But I do fully agree with you David that intervention to prevent the sale would be a huge step in the wrong direction for the UK. There is a constant discussion in the Cambridge Cluster between those who want us to build large world-champion companies and those who are OK with sell-outs and recycling of the proceeds to fund new start-ups. It's a difficult one. On balance though I am with the 'sell and recycle' side of the argument. A couple of experiences persuade me in this direction. Cambridge was about the only place in the UK to barely notice the 2007-9 financial crisis. We had full employment throughout and only one local shop closed down (Borders). At the research campus I chaired at that time we pruned our budget in preparation for losing a number of start-up companies during the downturn, but it did not happen, they sailed through.There are no large private employers here in Cambridge (though we have two large public funded employers, the University and the local council). With no large companies in financial trouble there were no large lay-offs. Yes, small small start-ups do fail but with the critical mass of SMEs and skilled people that we have here in Cambridge it is relatively easy for employees to find another start-up newly funded and looking for staff. Some of the proceeds from sale of ARM will serve the same function now. Another experience that showed me the relative stability of the SME model over large employers was a decade of consulting work for the EU on hi-tech businesses. Under one contract we analysed 16 hi-tech clusters around the world, and advised on the Critical Success Factors. Presence of large companies was not one of them . Neither was protecting national companies from sale to over-seas buyers. Finally, isn't it true that the whole direction of our new industrial revolution is towards smaller more fluid companies and innovation driven by recycling of skilled and experienced people between companies rather than locking them up in behemoths all their career?

David Fuller's view

Thank you very much for these insights which I am sure are of interest to many of us.

I will just follow up here some of what I mentioned yesterday: I think where ARM Holdings operates is more important than who owns it.  It is not being moved and is unlikely to be raided.  Instead, ARM will remain in Cambridge and with a promise from SoftBank to introduce potential business contracts and increase the number of engineers employed over the next five years.  If so, that should be good for ARM and good for Cambridge.