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This comes months after Broadcom received regulatory approval to acquire VMware from UK and EU authorities that were concerned about competition.
Broadcom has finally closed its more than $60bn deal to buy VMware, the US cloud computing giant, after getting regulatory approval from China.
China was the last major country to approve the deal, which became one of the world’s most expensive acquisitions when it was first announced in May last year.
According to a statement released by the two companies yesterday (21 November), Broadcom has received legal merger clearance in a host of markets, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan.
“There is no legal impediment to closing [the acquisition] under US merger regulations,” the statement notes.
In August, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approved the Broadcom deal following an investigation that looked into competition concerns.
It explored concerns that the deal could harm the ability of Broadcom’s rivals to compete if the merged company were to make their products work less well or not at all with VMware’s server virtualisation software.
However, the investigation concluded that the potential financial benefit to Broadcom and VMware doing this would not outweigh the potential financial cost in terms of lost business.
Earlier in the year, European Commission approved Broadcom’s bid to acquire VMware provided the hardware giant complies with interoperability commitments.
“By acquiring VMware, Broadcom could restrict or degrade interoperability between VMware’s leading server virtualisation software and some competing hardware components,” said EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager at the time.
“But the commitments offered by Broadcom will enable its only rival, Marvell, to continue competing on equal footing and ensure a similar protection for any future entrants.”
The full compliance condition as part of Broadcom’s commitments will be in place for the next 10 years.
The deal comprises $61bn in equity and an assumption of $8bn in debt. Now that it has been closed, the Broadcom Software Group will rebrand and operate as VMware, incorporating Broadcom’s infrastructure and security software as part of an expanded VMware portfolio.
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