A PYMNTS Company

EU Sends Objections To Broadcom’s Takeover of VMware, Says It Could Hurt Competition

By  |  April 12, 2023

The European Commission has stated that the potential $61 billion acquisition of VMware by Broadcom, a US chipmaker, may limit competition within certain hardware component markets.

The commission notified Broadcom of its preliminary perspective following a comprehensive examination of the acquisition that commenced in the latter part of last year.

Read more: UK To Conduct In-Depth Probe Into Broadcom’s $61B VMware Deal

In December 2022, the Commission opened an in-depth investigation to assess if Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware may restrict competition in the market for the supply of NICs, FC HBAs and storage adapters.

The Commission has conducted a wide-ranging investigation to understand the market and the potential impact of the deal. This investigation has included, among others, analyzing internal documents provided by the parties and gathering views from server users and manufacturers, as well as from virtualization software suppliers.

Broadcom now has the opportunity to reply to the commission’s objections and to request an oral hearing.