Buying ARM and shuttering up the business would be spending money to deny competitors a component (more exactly, future versions - the current ones are a done d

Buying ARM and shuttering up the business would be spending money to deny competitors a component (more exactly, future versions - the current ones are a done deal). Might not even work very well. ARM has design expertise and probably patents on specific ways to implement things (e.g. register twiddling, buses, that sort of stuff). Anyone can go design a processor that implements an instruction set (the I.S.Architecture), if they have deep enough pockets to avoid being stomped to death by patent infringement lawsuits (fair or unfair). And the ARM ISA is not the only game in town, just the one most used.