No Telling How Arm’s Litigation Will Affect Its Relations With Qualcomm, Says F-1

Arm Holdings “can provide no assurances” about the outcome of its litigation with Qualcomm and Nuvia, said Arm’s F-1 registration statement Monday at the SEC for its forthcoming initial public offering. Arm also can’t predict how the litigation will affect its relationship with Qualcomm, “which is currently a major customer of ours” and generated 11% of Arm’s total revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, said the F-1. The case is in the discovery phase, with trial set for September 2024 (see 2212190066), it said. The litigation “will likely require significant legal expenditures,” it said. “It may also require substantial time and attention from our executives or employees, which could distract them from operating our business.” it said. Arm’s involvement in such litigation “could cause us to incur significant reputational damage in the industry, in our relationship with Qualcomm or in our relationship with other third-party partners,” said the F-1. Qualcomm spent more than $1 billion to buy Nuvia, a startup led by former Apple and Google engineers that licensed Arm technologies to develop high-performance processor cores for semiconductor chips. “In the process,” alleged Arm’s Aug. 31, 2022, complaint, Qualcomm “caused Nuvia to breach its Arm licenses, leading Arm to terminate those licenses, in turn requiring Qualcomm and Nuvia to stop using and destroy any Arm-based technology developed under the licenses.” Qualcomm countersued in October for a declaratory judgment that it has complied with its contractual obligations to Arm.