US firm Jones Day is advising Chinese-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge on its proposed acquisition of UK chip-maker Imagination Technologies for £550m.

The deal was announced last week (23 September) after Imagination put itself up for sale in June.

Legal Week reported in June that Clifford Chance (CC) is advising Imagination. Its team is being led out of London by M&A partner Lee Coney and M&A partner Katherine Moir, with support from intellectual property partner Vanessa Marsland, litigation partner Iain Roxborough and competition partners Jenine Hulsmann and Timothy Cornell.

Yesterday (25 September), The Telegraph said that microchip designer ARM, based in Cambridge but acquired by Japan's Softbank last year, is circling Imagination in case the Canyon Bridge deal falls through due to regulatory concerns.

Imagination is currently embroiled in a dispute with Apple, its largest customer, over licensing payments. In April, the US computer giant said it planned to stop using its chip designs – which help power the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch – by 2019.

However, the Hertfordshire-based business questioned at the time whether Apple could produce its own chip designs without breaching Imagination's patents.

In May, Imagination announced it had kicked off a dispute resolution procedure with Apple over licensing payments.

CC is also advising Imagination on the dispute, with a team including Coney, Marsland and  Roxborough.