Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. today announced plans to acquire U.K.-based chip maker ARM Holdings Plc. in a £23.4 billion ($31 billion) deal as part of a move to strengthen its position in the growing mobile and Internet of Things markets.

ARM designs microprocessor chips for hundreds of technology firms, including mobile phone giants like Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. In total, more than 300 technology companies license chips designs from ARM, which has shipped over 60 billion semiconductors to date, the Financial Times reported. Tokyo-based SoftBank plans to offer a 43 percent premium on ARM’s current stock price, in what would be the largest acquisition of a European tech firm in history.

Before the announcement, the deal was also confirmed by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal via their own sources, though neither paper mentioned a price.

SoftBank is a well-known player in the world of tech acquisitions. Recent deals include its takeover of the popular Chinese taxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing, and its buyout of Indian online retailer Snapdeal. The company also famously acquired U.S. network carrier Sprint Nextel back in 2013.

With this latest deal, reports say SoftBank is hoping to tap into ARM’s semiconductor expertise to build out its own Internet of Things division. Besides being a major supplier to Apple, Samsung and others, ARM is also focused on new opportunities to build semiconductors in markets like autonomous cars, drones, robotics and smart cities. To that end, ARM recently acquired imaging and embedded computer vision firm Apical Ltd. for $350 million, with a view to using its technology to help next-generation devices better understand their environment and act upon it. The number of connected devices in the world is set to rise to 38.5 billion in 2020, up from 13.4 billion in 2015, which provides an idea of how much the market could be worth.

The acquisition woul make SoftBank a leading IoT players as the key supplier of specialist semiconductors to many of the biggest names in tech. ARM design licensees like Qualcomm Inc. for example, are rapidly gearing up to supply chips to the burgeoning market for connected devices.

One point of interest is that the deal is SoftBank’s first major acquisition since the departure of President and COO Nikesh Arora, who had been earmarked by current SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son as his future successor. Arora was said to be the prime architect of SoftBank’s tech acquisition strategy, overseeing numerous investments in the U.S. and India in particular, and today’s deal suggests the company won’t be any less aggressive without him.

It’s not immediately clear if a bidding war will emerge. Re/Code identifies both Apple and Intel as potential rival bidders.

There’s also the question of whether or not new U.K. prime minister Theresa May will allow the deal to go ahead. The BBC notes that May has previously gone on the record to criticize some foreign takeovers of U.K. firms as being bad moves for the local economy, which means that a deal of this size will surely come in for some close scrutiny.

Still, with Britain still reeling from the uncertainty surrounding “Brexit”, the BBC says May’s government will also be keen to show the referendum result has not deterred foreign investment. In addition, the BBC says SoftBank plans to commit to doubling the size of ARM’s U.K. workforce in the next five years if the acquisition goes ahead, which makes any government block on the deal seem less likely.

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