The recent appointment of Jason Child as Arm Holdings’ new chief financial officer marked the fifth CEO at the semiconductor and software company since 2015.
Child, who came in from San Francisco-based software company Splunk, replaced Inder Singh who only took the hot seat in April 2019 – but his relatively short tenure still made for one of the longest terms in the company’s recent history.
Before Singh, Tim Pullen held the position for only 18 months before moving on to compound semiconductor firm IQE.
Pullen replaced Chris Kennedy in April 2017, who also held the position for around 18 months before leaving for a position at Micro Focus.
In stark contrast, Tim Score held the position for 13 years from 2002 to 2015.
The company probably wants to show a bit more stability going forward though, given that it soon hopes to go public.
Though judging by the press release, Childs comes with a desirable skillset.
On his appointment, Arm’s chief executive officer Rene Haas said: “Jason is an experienced leader in global finance and technology. His extensive experience in financial management at public companies and IPO execution will be invaluable in preparation for a potential public listing.”
Arm is also bulking up the board as another step in the journey to going public with the appointment of Karen Dykstra, former chief financial and administrative officer of AOL (NYSE:AOL), and Jeff Sine, co-founder and partner of merchant bank Raine Group.
“I extend a warm welcome to Karen and Jeff, both exceptional business leaders who will bring a depth and breadth of experience to the Arm board,” commented Haas.
ARM’s road to floatation
If and when Arm goes public, it will not be the first time.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1998 until parent company SoftBank took it private in 2016. At that point, it was a member of the FTSE 100.
SoftBank initially wanted to dispose of Arm through a US$66bn sale to graphics card maker and key competitor Nvidia.
The deal fell through this January after facing scrutiny on anti-competition grounds.
“The parties agreed to terminate the agreement because of significant regulatory challenges preventing the consummation of the transaction, despite good faith efforts by the parties,” said Nvidia after the termination.
Following the termination, SoftBank chief executive officer Masayoshi Son predicted a second IPO date of March 31, 2023.
Given Nvidia’s initial agreement to buy Arm for US$66bn – more than twice what SoftBank paid six years ago – Arm’s valuation is possibly among the top-10 UK companies.
But a 2023 IPO now seems unlikely due to bearish market conditions, and the company’s roadmap to going public is under wraps for the moment.
Arm declined to comment on the IPO.