Softbank’s ARM bid may spur M&A ideas

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank, is clearly fond of making deals.

SoftBank bought Vodafone’s Japanese operation for around $17 billion in 2006 and gobbled up US wireless internet provider Sprint Corp for more than $20 billion three years ago. And since 2014 it has closed a further eight acquisitions totaling more than $10 billion, data from Dealogic shows.

But Son’s latest acquisition attempt is his biggest yet and perhaps his boldest.

Son, who recently firmed up his control of SoftBank after the exit of heir-apparent Nikesh Arora, has bid for a British technology company that has few synergies...