SoftBank’s Arm China lays off workers amid grim outlook for year

SoftBank Group Corp’s chip technology firm Arm Ltd’s China joint venture laid off 90-95 employees last week to cope with a challenging business outlook this year, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

The layoffs come as SoftBank tries to set up a public listing for Arm this year. The China market has been a major source of growth, although a two-year management dispute at the joint venture that resulted in the ousting of the former CEO created some challenges.

The sources said those who lost their jobs were mostly engineers in research and development. Before the layoffs, Arm China had about 700 employees;