British competition regulator to investigate Broadcom's acquisition of VMware

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen OC_Formula for the clue delivery! November 22, according to foreign media reports, on Monday, local time, the British Competition and Market Authority (CMA), the British competition regulator, announced that it would investigate Broadcom's acquisition of VMware to determine whether the deal would cause competition problems.

In May, Broadcom officially announced plans to buy VMware for $61 billion in cash and stock. In terms of acquisition size, the deal is second only to Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Dell's $67 billion acquisition of EMC.

It is reported that the deal, which needs to be approved by regulators and meets the transaction conditions, including the approval of the acquiree's shareholders, is expected to be completed in Broadcom's fiscal year 2023, which begins in November this year.

After the acquisition, Broadcom plans to merge VMware with the assets of its software division, and the combined business will operate under the VMware brand.

In June, foreign media reported that the EU planned to launch an antitrust investigation into Broadcom's planned acquisition of VMware because regulators were concerned that the deal could hurt competition in the global technology industry. Last month, foreign media reported that the European Commission could make a decision on whether to approve the deal by December 20.

In July, foreign media reported that VMware's board of directors and Michael Dell, its largest shareholder and chairman, had approved the proposed merger.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also advanced its investigation into the deal to the second stage, gathering enough evidence in the preliminary analysis to conduct a broader investigation.

On Monday, local time, foreign media reported that in order to conduct the first phase of the investigation, CMA had invited relevant parties to express their views on the deal by December 6. Once the first phase of the investigation is completed, the regulator will assess whether to enter a more comprehensive second phase of the investigation. During the second phase of the investigation, if anti-competitive behaviour is found in the transaction, CMA may decide to take action, including blocking the merger.