Inside nearly every smartphone, tablet, e-reader and smartwatch are tiny microprocessors that tell the machine what to do. Small pulses of energy move from a gadget's battery through millions of tiny transistors, triggering commands and responses in nanoseconds, be it playing games, posting to Facebook, sending texts, or taking pictures.
ARM Holdings PLC., which internet giant SoftBank Group Corp. on Monday agreed to buy for $31 billion, is the world's biggest designer of these semiconductors. Founded in 1990 in Cambridge, and today employing about 4,000 people, the company focuses on small, low-power devices, while industry leader Intel Corp. leads in desktop and laptop personal computers.
The market moved in ARM's favor as mobile phones began to proliferate. Now its designs are inside more than 95 percent of the world's smartphones — including every iPhone and Samsung Galaxy product — accounting for an estimated total of 45 percent of ARM's sales. Televisions, medical equipment, cars and internet-connected home appliances also use its designs.