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ARM hires 1,000 staff after SoftBank buy-out

Hiring spree is the first step in SoftBank's pledge to double UK staff

9 Oct 2017

ARM has hired more than 1,000 new staff members worldwide since it was taken over by SoftBank last year, with a large proportion of these UK-based employees.

The figures provided by SoftBank's UK Takeover Panel suggest the number of employees in ARM's UK operation rose from 1,749 to 2,173, while in the rest of the world, its workforce increased from 2,220 to 2,845, bringing the total number of new staff to 1,049.

This is part of SoftBank's quest to build ARM's presence in the UK, fulfilling a commitment made when it lodged its takeover bid last year. At the time, SoftBank said it would double the number of staff in both the UK and worldwide and although there's still a fairly large recruitment campaign to go in order to hit that number, it has certainly made a dent in fulfilling its promises.

The terms were set out in the UK's new Takeover Code, which have been designed to prevent foreign companies buying up UK businesses and then withdrawing support in the country. Japanese company SoftBank has promised it's committed to the UK and would report what it's done to adhere to the code every year.

Although some of the employees now listed as ARM's were transferred from SoftBank, this is still within the rules set out in the UK's Takeover Code.

In SoftBank's latest report about how it's changed ARM since its acquisition, the company revealed it continues to operate the business from its UK headquarters in Cambridge and it has opened two new offices in the city.

"This progress on undertakings illustrates not only SoftBank's ambition to develop ARM into one of the leading global technology companies, but also its commitment to UK jobs and research and development," a spokesman said.