ARM helped Arduino founders get company back

Arduino has announced a partnership with ARM. According to the founders of Arduino, this helped them take the company back into their own hands. Two ARM employees have joined the board of Arduino.

Arduino reports seeking a partner to help the original founders regain ownership of the company and found it in ARM. According to Massimo Banzi, one of the founders of Arduino, ARM is a “supporting partner” that leaves complete autonomy to the Arduino team and the community.

The founders of the original Arduino are Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, David Mellis and Tom Igoe. Their attempt to regain control of the company began with the acquisition of the brand name. For two years, Arduino LLC, the founders, and Arduino SRL were engaged in a legal battle over ownership of the Arduino brand. A year ago, the parties reached a settlement, leaving a single company called Arduino AG.

The CEO was Federico Musto of Arduino SRL, which also had a majority stake in Arduino AG. The original founders, united in the company BCMI, succeeded in taking full ownership of Arduino AG in July this year, it turns out with help from ARM.

“ARM recognizes independence as a core value at Arduino,” said Banzi, who claims there will be no lock-in with the ARM architecture. He does not provide further details about the collaboration, nor about the nature of the aid from ARM. Banzi tells Hackaday that it is in any case not a takeover or investment, which leaves open the possibility of, for example, a donation or guarantee.

In addition, it is clear that two employees of ARM will sit on the board of Arduino. Recently Arduino announced two iot boards for LoRa networks with ARM Cortex-M0+ processor, the Arduino MKR WAN 1300 and MKR GSM 1400. Arduino now emphasizes that it will continue to use other architectures as well.