EU approves $61bn VMware - Broadcom deal
Broadcom agreed to a 10-year deal that gives main rival Marvell and any competitors that emerge guaranteed access to Broadcom’s source code for its Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters
As expected, the $61 billion tie-up between Broadcom and VMware was approved by the European Commission (EC) onWednesday, clearing the way for one of the largest tech mergers of all time that promises to reshape both companies involved.
"We welcome the European Commission's decision to clear Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, subject to conditions," a Broadcom spokesperson said.
"With this decision, the Commission recognises the importance of this combination in enabling enterprises to accelerate innovation and expand choice by addressing their most complex technology challenges in this multi-cloud era."
Broadcom agrees to give competitors access
The EC approved the merger after spending seven months involved in a deep-dive probe that found Broadcom could "foreclose" its only rival for Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters (FC HBAs), chipmaker Marvell, had the deal been allowed to proceed.
"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," Margrethe Vestager, EC executive vice president in charge of competition policy, wrote in announcing the decision.
Broadcom agreed to give competitors access to the source code for all of its current and future FC HBA drivers.
In addition, it will give rivals access to interoperability APIs necessary for the competition to develop and certify third-party FC HBAs. It has promised to keep that working for rivals and to give them the same real-time access to information for 10 years.
The agreement also will be monitored by an independent trustee and come with a fast-track dispute resolution process.
"This will allow Marvell and any potential entrant to ensure interoperability with VMware's server virtualisation software and allow them to reuse and modify Broadcom's drivers for its own use," the Commission wrote.
"Furthermore, Broadcom committed to implementing an organisational separation between the team working on Broadcom's FC HBAs and the team in charge of third-party certification and technical support. It also committed to ensuring protection of confidential information of Marvell and any potential entrant obtained in the context of the interoperability and certification processes."
A version of this article first appeared in CRN