, Columnist
ARM's Sale Shows the Limits of British Patriotism
Foreign investors aren't so bad after all.
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Anyone who cares about Europe's technology scene will be sad to see ARM Holdings become a unit of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.
As for the U.K., it seems odd (to put it mildly) that it appears content to cede control of arguably its lone tech champion, a week after new prime minister Theresa May professed her distaste for foreign takeovers of science-rich British companies. True, it's hard to characterize SoftBank as a wicked asset stripper in the vein of U.S. drugmaker Pfizer. The Japanese have promised to keep the headquarters in Cambridge and double the number of British jobs over five years.