Arm China finally boots rogue CEO that's held it hostage with a 'chop' for years

pcgamer.com:

Arm China has finally replaced renegade CEO Allen Wu nearly two years following Wu's dismissal by the company's board. How did he stick around so long, you ask? He had possession of the company's seal stamp, called a 'chop'—a centuries-old business practice likened to a more formal signature in the West—handing him the ability to effectively ignore what he was told by the board and continue doing what he liked.

Arm China is actually a joint venture between Arm, the UK-based chip designer owned by Japanese firm Softbank, and a Chinese investment firm called Hopu. Arm Ltd only owns a minority stake, but its involvement is key as one of the world's largest chip designers.

Arm China's board wanted to boot Wu following concerns over conflict of interest, which Wu still denies. The board technically did boot Wu over these claims in June 2020, in fact, but Wu denied he was fired, too.

Wu even attempted to fire his board-appointed replacements and reportedly installed his own security team in the company's Shanghai offices to keep out Arm and Hopu representatives from getting in. At one point, it was reported that Arm China had announced its independence from Arm entirely, and had even set up its own R&D department.

In the eyes of the powers that be in China's Shenzhen region—a sprawling tech hub—Wu was the legal representative for Arm, and there wasn't much that could be done while the company chop was in his possession and he retained the ability to sign off on legal documents as Arm China.

However, this two-year facade may well have come to an end. Arm China, with help from the local authorities, has now successfully replaced Wu with co-CEOs Liu Renchen and Eric Chen, it says in a statement. Clearly two CEOs are safer than