London, United Kingdom – Britain gave its final approval on Monday to Broadcom’s planned $61-billion takeover of cloud computing firm VMware, which the US chipmaker said should be completed by the end of October.
The Competition and Markets Authority last month gave its provisional approval to the deal announced in May 2022, and said on Monday that “its final decision is that the deal does not substantially reduce competition –- clearing it to proceed in the UK”.
Broadcom is seeking to expand into the software market to boost its server business and has already acquired two complementary firms, CA Technology and Symantec.
VMware’s key product allows different clients to share computer servers by creating what is called a virtual server.
British regulators conducted a more in-depth probe into whether the merged company would have an interest in hobbling rivals by making its products work less well or be incompatible.
It also examined whether the merged company would gain undue advantage by rivals needing to submit information to make their products interoperable.
The CMA found that restricting product interoperability would cause the merged company greater financial losses than gains, and that it would not gain competitive advantage when rivals provided it with product information to ensure that interoperability.
“In this case, having carefully considered the evidence and found no competition concerns, we have concluded the deal can go ahead,” said Richard Feasey, chairman of the independent panel that carried out the in-depth probe of the merger.
The European Union gave its approval to the merger last month and Broadcom said on Monday that United States authorities did not take action to block the deal during the statutory waiting period.
In a statement, Broadcom “affirmed its expectation that its acquisition of VMware, Inc… will close on October 30, 2023”, adding: “There is no legal impediment to closing under US merger regulations.”
