Tuesday , December 10 2024

China approves $69bn US technology merger

25-11-2023

BEIJING: Computer chipmaker Broadcom has completed its $69bn (£55bn) acquisition of cloud computing firm VMware, wrapping up one of the biggest takeover deals in the technology sector.

The deal was scrutinized by regulators around the world ahead of last clearance from China.

There were concerns it could be affected by US-China tensions.

The approval follows a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at Apec summit in the US last week.

American company Broadcom headquartered in San Jose, California designs, develops and supplies semiconductor chips while it also offers infrastructure software solutions.

VMware also an American company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California- develops virtualisation software which allows a user to run a virtual computer on a physical computer to increase the efficiency of the computer system.

Broadcom’s president and chief executive officer, Hock Tan, said they were excited to bring together their teams to build “the world’s leading infrastructure technology company”.

Together, they hope to create private and hybrid cloud environments where users can run “apps anywhere”.

To complete the deal, the firm has sought and received legal merger clearances in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and UK.

Shares in VMWare will now cease to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to the company.

The US and China have been engaged in a trade war since 2018 when the then US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs and other trade barriers on China.

Advanced chips, which are used in everything from cars, smartphones to fighter jets, have been the most recent hot commodity.

Last month, China hit back at the Biden administration’s decision to impose new restrictions on their exports but the two leaders who met during the Apec summit managed to agree on a number of issues ranging from tackling climate change together to resuming military communication.

Despite President Biden calling President Xi “a dictator”, China’s state-owned media hailed it as a “historic” summit which would be a “new starting point” for their relations. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)

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