High in a Shenzhen office tower, the new chief executive of Arm’s China unit found a six-man security team barring his entrance to the UK chip designer’s offices.
But Liu Renchen, glasses pressed to his nose and khakis hiked up to his belly button, was determined to enter and resolve a two-year corporate battle. Gaining control over the renegade Chinese unit is crucial to plans being drawn up by Arm’s owner, Japan’s SoftBank, to list the UK’s biggest technology company.
Last week, Shenzhen officials finally agreed to remove Arm China head Allen Wu, clearing his name from business records and fashioning a new “chop”, or company seal, which authorises official documents and with which Wu has wielded power for nearly two years.