UK Competition Regulator Clears Broadcom, VMware Merger – Source: www.govinfosecurity.com

Endpoint Security

Broadcom Anticipates It Can Close Deal Before Oct. 30

Akshaya Asokan (asokan_akshaya) •
August 21, 2023    

The British competition regulator cleared Broadcom’s $61 billion proposed acquisition of cloud and virtualization giant VMware, a decision the company says removes one of the last major regulatory obstacles to putting Symantec and VMware’s security practice under the same roof.

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Monday’s announcement by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority comes just weeks after European regulators cleared the acquisition after obtaining interoperability and source code access concessions from Broadcom in its fiber channel host bus adapter manufacturing business.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has not announced the conclusion of an investigation it launched in July 2022. A mandatory waiting period imposed by initiation of the FTC investigation has expired, Broadcom said, meaning “there is no legal impediment to closing under U.S. merger regulations.” The company is in “advanced stages of the process toward obtaining the remaining required regulatory approvals” which it said will likely occur before Oct. 30.

The U.K. CMA concluded its eight-month-long investigation by deciding that the merger would not substantially reduce competition in the supply of server hardware components.

If finalized, the deal will let Broadcom expand its security portfolio by absorbing VMware offerings, which include endpoints, workloads and containers. Broadcom ventured into the cybersecurity market in 2018 with the $18.9 billion purchase of CA Technologies, and in 2019 it purchased Symantec for $10.7 billion.

“Combining our assets and talented team with Broadcom’s existing enterprise software portfolio, all housed under the VMware brand, creates a remarkable enterprise software player,” VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram said in May 2022.