By Amir Mizroch
BARCELONA--British semiconductor designer ARM Holdings PLC is
looking to diversify beyond designing chips primarily for
smartphones and is building its share in other markets, some of
which have higher chip prices, according to Chief Financial Officer
Tim Score.
Mr. Score, speaking at Morgan Stanley's European Technology,
Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona, said that would attract
higher royalty rates than the company has historically seen.
"We're in a multi-year program to get ARM in servers and
enterprise networking," Mr. Score said. "The financial impact of
that will be a multiple of anything we've yet seen."
ARM recently reported a sharp rise in third-quarter profit, but
the results disappointed investors expecting a more robust rebound
in revenue linked to smartphone sales.
The Cambridge, England-based company reported healthy demand for
high-tech chips for mobile phones and a pickup in chips for
so-called smart objects. But ARM, which designs technology found in
chips in more than 95% of all smartphones, has had to weather an
uncertain period in the smartphone industry. Growth in higher-end
smartphones has been slowing, while inexpensive smartphones have
begun to proliferate in emerging markets. That's weighed on shares
for much of this year.
Lisa Fleisher in London contributed to this article
-Write to Amir Mizroch at Amir.Mizroch@wsj.com