SoftBank said to have weighed takeover of Marvell

SoftBank Group Corp. explored a potential takeover of US chipmaker Marvell Technology Inc. earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said, in what would have been the semiconductor industry's largest-ever deal.

- Bloomberg

The Japanese conglomerate's billionaire founder, Masayoshi Son, has been studying Marvell as a possible target on and off for years, according to the people. It's part of his efforts to bet on hardware that can benefit from the artificial intelligence boom. SoftBank made overtures to Marvell several months ago, but the two sides couldn't reach an agreement on terms, the people said.

SoftBank was eyeing Marvell with the idea of combining it with Arm Holdings Plc, the UK chip designer that it controls, the people said. While Marvell and SoftBank aren't currently in active negotiations on a deal, it's possible the interest could be revived, some of the people said. Son regularly looks at dozens of possible deals without taking action, the people said.

Marvell's shares extended gains to 13% in Asian trading on the alternative platform Blue Ocean. That's after a 16% slide this year that conferred on the company a market value of about $80 billion. Marvell's loss stands in contrast with Nvidia Corp., Broadcom Inc. and Arm, which have all surged this year. Arm has a market capitalization of around $170 billion.

Marvell could also attract interest from other suitors, some of the people said. Representatives for SoftBank, Marvell and Arm declined to comment.