UK competition watchdog probes $61 billion Broadcom-VMware deal

Reuters

Published Jan 25, 2023 06:23AM ET

Updated Jan 25, 2023 11:13AM ET

(Reuters) - Britain's competition regulator said on Wednesday it had started the first phase of an investigation into U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Inc's $61 billion acquisition of cloud-computing firm VMware (NYSE:VMW) Inc.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in November it was investigating whether the deal between the two U.S.-listed companies could substantially hurt competition in Britain, adding that it had until March 22 to decide.

The Broadcom-VMware deal was one of the biggest announcements globally in 2022, marking the chipmaker's attempt to diversify into the enterprise software segment.