From the Rumor Mill: Apple Might Buy out ARM holdings?

Well at least that is what the scuttlebutt is around the UK.

To be clear, London’s Evening Standard is only citing “gossips” within the city’s financial district. But those gossips aren’t the only ones convinced there is something to this talk: ARM’s shares went up 8.1 points today, with more than 5 million shares changing hands by midday, the paper reports. The deal, would apparently see Apple buying ARM for something in the neighborhood of 5.2 billion British pounds, or roughly $8 billion in U.S. dollars.

ARM makes the majority of cell phone chips and would mark quite a change in the cell phone landscape. Most of the IPhones' competitors are using the ARM chip licenses in their devices and would then be paying royalties to Apple. So the redesign of their devices will need to be pretty quick so that they don't contribute to the bottom line of their hated rival. It might be interesting to see what chip maker steps up to fill the void if ARM Holdings is taken out by Apple.