Arm hires former Splunk CFO Jason Child ahead of IPO

Adds new heads to boardroom too but still not word on destination of flotation

Chip designer Arm has made a flurry of boardroom appointments ahead of its IPO later this year, including hiring a new Chief Financial Officer with experience taking companies public.

Karen Dykstrea, one-time chief bean counter and administrative officer at AOL, was today added to the board along with Jeff Sine, co-founder and partner of private equity biz Raine Group. They will sit alongside Arm CEO Rene Haas and Masayoshi Son, Chairman of the board.

In addition, Arm has also confirmed the addition to Jason Child to its C-suite, joining as CFO.

Arm says Child has three decades plus of experience, beginning via an accounting internship at IBM with an additional eleven years at the company - latterly as VP of Finance - and more than four and a half years at Groupon, during which the business IPO’d. For the past four and a half years, Child was CFO at Splunk.

“Jason is an experienced leader own global finance and technology. His extensive experience in financial management at public companies and IPO execution will be invaluable in preparation for a potential IPO,” Haas said in a statement.

Child replaces outgoing Inder Singh, who will remain on board in an advisory role before his successor joins in November. Haas credited the exiting exec with upgrading systems and processes in the finance, IT and infosec teams.

The exact date of the IPO is yet to be confirmed by Arm, as is the chosen stock exchange on which those shares are to be listed. The new British Prime Minister says she hasn’t given up on convincing Arm’s parent SoftBank to opt for as dual listing in London and New York, despite the direction of travel seemingly favoring an IPO stateside.

Unite the union previously told us it think Arm floating on the NYSE could signal changes to the UK organization, with its HQ transferred from Cambridge to the US and jobs being cut in Britain. The flotation was expected, earlier this year to value Arm at $60 billion but the global stock markets have endured turmoil since then.

The IPO option for Arm was decided by Softbank management early this year following the mutual termination of Nvidia’s proposed $66 billion purchase of the chip designer. The pair were unable to surmount regulatory hurdles placed in their path by competition watchdogs around the world. ®