$40 million Raspberry Pi IPO is set for June
Engineering capital expenditure and supply chains will benefit from the investment
The wait is over! Raspberry Pi Ltd, the trading subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation has confirmed a June 2024 date for its $40 million Initial Public Offering (IPO). The confirmation comes via a Confirmed Intention to Float document published on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The IPO is comprised partly of existing shares being sold to certain shareholders which includes the "Principal Shareholder" which is "Raspberry Pi Mid Co Limited" a wholly owned subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and has Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Philip Colligan as a director. New shares will be issued for sale by Raspberry Pi as a means to raise $40 million which will be used for engineering capital expenditure, to enhance the Raspberry Pi supply chain, and for general corporate purposes.
In the announcement, we can see on the second bullet point that on May 21 the principal shareholder, Arm, and Lansdowne Partners (UK) LLP entered into an agreement where Arm and Lansdowne agreed to purchase shares. Arm will purchase $35 million worth of shares, and Lansdowne will purchase up to a maximum of $20 million in shares.
Both Arm and Lansdowne are existing shareholders, with Arm purchasing a minority stake back in 2023. Arm has an existing link to Raspberry Pi with the series of Arm-based CPUs that power all of the boards.
Martin Hellawell, Non-Executive Chair of Raspberry Pi further confirms that the float is about to happen.
"We are delighted to confirm our intention to float on the London Stock Exchange, underscoring our confidence in the UK as the home for innovative and growing global businesses. Raspberry Pi is a British computing success story, and this marks the next stage in the evolution of the company."
Paul Williamson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IoT Line of Business, at Arm made this comment:
"With a shared vision to lower barriers to innovation and make computing accessible for everyone, Arm and Raspberry Pi are natural collaborators - and as demand for more compute and AI at the edge grows, Raspberry Pi's solutions will continue to drive the adoption of high-performance IoT devices. Following our strategic investment in the business last year, we look forward to increasing our stake as Raspberry Pi steps into this new exciting chapter."
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Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".
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DS426 That's great that ARM is investing in them, but as majority stockholders, I feel like this could deter some aspects of innovation. One example would be having a RISC-V RPi at some point as this potentially lowers the barrier-to-entry yet again when there's no licensing fee to pass on to the customer. Moreover, the open ISA could open up new opportunities for amateur chip designers, as well as commercial start-ups, namely on socketed CPU's.Reply
Nothing against ARM and the software ecosystem is definitely stronger, but thinking about the spirit of the pie and what next big thing would take the concept to the next level. -
Blastomonas
Im sure that the last article said the IPO would be $630 million.. Thought that was too low.Admin said:The Raspberry Pi IPO is set for June 2024 and hopes to raise $40 million
$40 million Raspberry Pi IPO is set for June : Read more -
TJ Hooker
Where do you see that ARM will become the majority shareholder?DS426 said:That's great that ARM is investing in them, but as majority stockholders, I feel like this could deter some aspects of innovation. One example would be having a RISC-V RPi at some point as this potentially lowers the barrier-to-entry yet again when there's no licensing fee to pass on to the customer. Moreover, the open ISA could open up new opportunities for amateur chip designers, as well as commercial start-ups, namely on socketed CPU's.
Nothing against ARM and the software ecosystem is definitely stronger, but thinking about the spirit of the pie and what next big thing would take the concept to the next level.