An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Opposition to the $40 billion sale of the UK’s largest tech firm, Arm Holdings, is mounting, as the trade union Unite said staff concerned about their future had been “fobbed off” and the company’s local MP urged the government to act. The government has so far declined to say whether it will consider deploying powers to block the deal or attach conditions, despite pressure from Labour, trade unions and Arm’s outspoken co-founder Hermann Hauser.
On Tuesday, Unite said members who worked for Arm at its Cambridge headquarters had been kept in the dark and fobbed off in an internal meeting, with senior figures telling them any transaction was at least 18 months away. Unite called on the government to prevent the sale, saying ministers should be “protecting tech firms from being hollowed out by detrimental takeovers and providing the investment needed for the sector as a whole to flourish.” Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP whose constituency includes Arm’s headquarters, will meet union officials and employees on Friday. Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he called on the government to secure a legally binding guarantee to protect jobs as well as an exemption from US foreign investment rules. On Monday, ARM co-founder Hermann Hauser penned an open letter to the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson in which he says that he is “extremely concerned” about the deal and how it will impact jobs in the country, Arm’s business model and the future of the country’s economic sovereignty independent of the U.S. and U.S. interests.
A spokesperson for Arm said: “Communication sessions have been ongoing with employees at a global, regional and departmental level since the deal was made public. Together, [Arm CEO] Simon Segars and [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang held multiple interactive communications sessions with Arm employees, providing them with the highest levels of transparency within the legal constraints of the situation. It was also clearly communicated that the regulatory process does not have a specific timetable and employees will be kept informed as we get more information relating to the initial estimate of 18 months.”
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Source:: Slashdot