US chipmaker, Broadcom has successfully obtained antitrust approval from the European Union for its proposed $61 billion acquisition of cloud computing firm VMware.
In order to address concerns regarding competition, Broadcom offered remedies to rival Marvell Technology.
This landmark deal represents Broadcom’s largest ever and signifies the company’s strategic move towards diversification into enterprise software.
The European Commission confirmed that Broadcom has provided interoperability commitments to Marvell and other competitors concerning its Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters (FC HBAs), which are storage adapters. This confirms a previous Reuters report.
Under these commitments, Marvell and other rivals will have “guaranteed access to the interoperability Application Programming Interfaces as well as to the materials, tools, and technical support necessary for the development and certification of third-party FC HBAs,” stated the EU competition enforcer.
Additionally, Marvell and other competitors will be granted assured access to the source code of all of Broadcom’s current and future FC HBA drivers through an irrevocable open-source license.
EU antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager emphasized that the commitments made by Broadcom will ensure fair competition and protect the interests of Marvell and any potential future entrants to the market.
While the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK competition agency are also reviewing the acquisition, Broadcom expressed confidence in their progress, stating, “We continue to make progress with our various regulatory filings around the world, having received legal merger clearance in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, South Africa, and Taiwan, and foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions.”
