And you think selling off British businesses is the answer…
@I0101270
The economic model and its structure of China differ massively from those of Britain.
I had the pleasure to witness some of the high profile Chinese tech firms’ roadshows a few years back. Their aims were pure and simple - fundraising via diversification with the encouragement from the Chinese government in a bid to venture overseas, build awareness and improve R&D. Although with massive underlying problems the move was nonetheless considered mutually beneficial for the firms and investors alike at the time (but do check how some of these firm concluded their overseas listings in recent years). Although not identical, some of the title transfers had the similar logics behind them.
The same can’t be said for ARM, or any flagship British enterprises, regrettably.
As you have mentioned in the original post, the ‘core technology’ in a few industries is what could be argued as one of the remaining strengths of this country. And it is exactly what tech buyers around the world are going after. With a title transfer, it would be hard to imagine that the new owners would keep the lab exclusively in the UK. It’s not a charitable course after all.
In my humble opinion, the acquisition of ARM is a trade off of its intangible assets (such as R&D and market share) for what could be a short term capital injection.
Wherever there’s a transaction there is an assumed equation.
However defying our mathematics, these equations warrant neither equality nor balance.
I admire your optimism nevertheless.
