None of this stuff about "national importance" moves me. If ARM was based in France then people from Cambridge UK would still be able to work there, either by moving house or remotely. For a company which is purely based on IPR and software it's completely unnecessary for the networks to be colocated. (Hardware is of course quite a bit different, but maybe that will change in future)
FWIW I work, from home in the UK, for a multinational software company which is largely based in the US.
> If ARM was based in France then people from Cambridge UK would still be able to work there, either by moving house or remotely. //
People may not be able to work in France after Britain leaves the EU so a company relying on moving those people would be on shaky ground at the moment.
That's merely another reason why Brexit is such a bad idea.
My point is why is ARM a "UK national asset" when if it were located only about 200 miles away it could be a "French national asset", and really it would make hardly any difference to anyone. The ownership would be the same (pension funds etc). The people working for it would be the same. If it does make a difference at all, that's just because we (humans) make it difficult for ourselves, not for any real reason.
In fact ARM has several offices in France (http://www.arm.com/about/company-profile/locations-around-th...). It's only a "UK national asset" because the company is registered in the UK, for historical reasons. For all I know there are some employees in France who are so pivotal to ARM as a company that if they left the thing would collapse. If that hypothetical was true why wouldn't you call it a French national asset already?
The whole thing of nationalities and borders is based on very minor and arbitrary distinctions, so any argument that we try to derive based on those assumptions quickly descends into "ex falso quodlibet".
It's a UK national asset because it's _not_ located about 200 miles away. I would certainly apply for a job at ARM in the UK, but I wouldn't in France, because I don't want to live in France and I don't want to work remotely.
The fact they're in the UK means that a lot of the money they make ends up here, which means more money in the economy near me and more money for the government to spend on things that benefit me.
Nationalities and borders may well be arbitrary (I agree), but that doesn't mean they don't matter.
Sure, you (and I) have a preference to live in the UK and speak English and drink proper beer and so on. The good news is that a hypothetical ARM company registered in France wouldn't prevent you from enjoying all that and working for them, since in this reversed situation ARM has offices in the UK and even if it didn't you could work remotely.
When you and your friends work remotely from the UK, you pay income tax and VAT and all the rest. (Corporation tax is both very hard to collect and has just been reduced, yet again, by the outgoing chancellor)
Now I'll grant that for some software/IP-based companies you cannot work from where you choose, but those companies are broken. Also you say you don't like to work remotely, but I think if you worked for a company which was organized around this (as I do) you really would prefer it, as there is hardly any down-side.
It is not a national asset because people could move to france and participate in the french economy ...?
I also work from home in the UK for a multinational software company largely based in the US, but I understand that not every company is organised the same way.
It is UK based. The profits it makes, and people it employs, have a direct effect on our national and local budgets.
It attracts high-class talent to the UK, further increasing its national importance.
The services it creates acts as an excellent advertisement for the UK's technology industry.
As you point out, many UK pensions schemes are invested in it.
Personally, I'm not entirely comfortable with the phrase "national asset" - but that's the common term used.
> if ARM were to dramatically collapse under the new management, they would get jobs elsewhere very quickly.
Tell that to those employed by Nokia.