ARM Is Said to Agree to Buy Treasure Data

ARM, the British computer-chip designer owned by SoftBank Group, has agreed to buy U.S.-based data analytics firm Treasure Data, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

Treasure Data may fetch about $600 million in the sale, the people said, asking not to be identified. The acquisition is part of ARM’s push into the Internet of things. In June it announced the acquisition of Stream Technologies, a Glasgow-based company that improves connectivity for internet of things devices.

SoftBank, which bought ARM in 2016 for $32 billion, is interested in investing in AI, driverless cars, IoT, robotics and ride sharing, CEO Masayoshi Son has said. The company has announced about $34 billion in deals in the last year, and is investing in technology companies through its nearly $100 billion Vision Fund.

California-based Treasure Data develops products to help companies analyze data for marketing and other purposes, such as dealing with a surge in data from a product launch or unifying information from sensors, according to its website. Its products are used by the automotive, retail, Internet-of-things and entertainment industries, and the company said its customer-data platform can help users compete with “data giants like Netflix, Amazon and Facebook.“

If the deal goes through, the Treasure Data acquisition would be one of the largest in ARM’s history. An extremely conservative acquirer, ARM’s biggest deal was for Artisan Components in 2004 for $705.9 million.