The companies expect to finalize the $69 billion deal on Wednesday.
US chipmaker Broadcom will complete its acquisition of cloud software company VMware on Wednesday, the two companies announced after China approved the $69bn deal. The merger agreement between the two companies was set to expire on November 26.
The State Administration for Market Regulation of China (SAMR) approved the merger with some “restrictive conditions”. The SAMR had remained resolutely silent on whether it would give its consent for the transaction to proceed, or whether it would sabotage the merger in retaliation for US export restrictions and sanctions that have been imposed on Chinese companies.
Broadcom has now received legal merger clearance in multiple countries including the European Union, Canada, Brazil, South Africa and the UK, and foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions, according to VMware.
The Chinese regulator approved the merger after this month’s meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at the APEC summit in San Francisco. The Chinese and U.S. leaders have resumed high-level military communications and agreed to establish a counter-narcotics working group.
According to the Financial Times, in recent months Broadcom chief Hock Tan has staged an intense lobbying campaign to win over Beijing, meeting senior science and technology officials, antitrust regulators and politicians.
China’s state administration for market regulation said it had resumed reviewing the merger on Friday and that on Monday Broadcom had submitted an additional “commitment plan”, which would reduce the tie-up’s market impact, clearing the way for the deal’s approval.
Sources: Financial Times, The Register
