Frozen ARM Syndrome; No New Hires Until The NVIDIA Deal Is Done

And An Attempt To Disarm The Rumour Mill

There is an ARM hiring freeze as of today, with no new hires being approved up to and including replacements for anyone who leaves ARM, until the deal with NVIDIA has completed, one way or another.  The freeze is specifically being deployed to the IP Products Group, but support services such as Legal and HR do not seem to be hiring either.  The official word is that ARM had a huge influx of new hires over the past few quarters and so there are no spaces to fill, and they need to ensure that their payroll costs don’t increase faster than the business, however they did not mention a reason not to fill positions if they become vacant in the quote provided to The Register.

In addition to the hiring freeze, ARM is also discontinuing the FlexPot wellness plan for the duration as well.  This relatively new program provided employees with a fairly significant amount of money to spend on a wide variety of mental and physical wellness expenses, from summer camps for their children to gym memberships to furthering their educations.  The amount was dependant on location, for instance US employees previously received $8,500 but now will not receive anything.  This is somewhat more worrisome than a hiring freeze, as it hints at serious economic uncertainties.

The purchase of ARM from SoftBank by NVIDIA is still under review in numerous countries, some of which have already launched legal campaigns to prevent the sale from occurring.  These new developments may trigger a new court cases to launch from countries which have yet to object to the sale.