Broadcom wins conditional EU antitrust approval to buy VMware

VMware

12/07/2023 10:50

By Foo Yun Chee
       BRUSSELS, July 12 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Broadcom
 AVGO.O  secured EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $61
billion proposed acquisition of cloud computing firm VMware
 VMW.N  after offering remedies to help rival Marvell Technology
 MRVL.O .
    Broadcom offered Marvell and other rivals interoperability
commitments related to its Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters (FC
HBAs), a kind of storage adapters, the European Commission said.
     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", the
EU competition enforcer said.
    Marvell and other rivals will also have guaranteed access to
the source code for all of Broadcom's current and future FC HBA
drivers through an irrevocable open source license.
    "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," EU antitrust
chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

 (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
 ((foo.yunchee@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 585 2866; Reuters
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