Recently, EC officials reportedly had a meeting with Broadcom to convey their concerns regarding the deal, following which the Commission is expected to initiate a full-scale four-month long investigation after the completion of the preliminary review
Broadcom to face full-scale antitrust investigation in EU regarding its acquisition of VMware. (Credit: Coolcaesar/Wikipedia.org)
Broadcom’s acquisition of cloud computing and virtualisation technology firm VMware for nearly $61bn is reportedly set to come under a full-scale antitrust probe by the European Commission (EC).
Last week, EC officials had a meeting with Broadcom to convey the concerns regarding the deal, reported Reuters, citing undisclosed sources having knowledge of the matter.
The Commission is expected to initiate a full-scale four-month long probe following the completion of the preliminary review.
According to the news agency, the EU’s competition enforcement body is scheduled to complete its preliminary investigation on the proposed deal on 20 December 2022.
Owing to the scale of the deal, Broadcom expects the timeline for the review process to be extended in other major regions.
The company, has been quoted by the publication, as stating: “Having said that, we’re still confident that this transaction will close and be completed in our fiscal 2023.”
In November 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced plans to launch an investigation into the proposed acquisition.
The CMA invited comments on the proposed acquisition from interested parties for its assessment. The deadline for filing the comments was 6 December 2022.
Broadcom announced the cash-and-stock deal with the California-based VMware in May 2022.
As per the terms of the transaction, shareholders of the publicly-listed VMware will receive either $142.5 in cash or 0.252 shares of Broadcom shares for each VMware share.
Following the closing of the deal, current Broadcom shareholders will hold about 88% stake in the combined company, while current VMware shareholders will own the remaining 12% interest.