Key Takeaways
- Broadcom finally closed its $69 billion purchase of VMware following approval by Chinese regulators.
- The deal had been held up by officials concerned about potential impacts on competition.
- Broadcom shares were lower after reaching an all-time high on Monday.
It’s taken a year and a half, but Broadcom (AVGO) has finally acquired rival software firm VMware (VMW).
The closing of the $69 billion agreement, first announced in May 2022, had been delayed three times by regulators concerned the combination would reduce competition. The last approval came yesterday when officials in China gave the go-ahead.
There had been concerns that the deal wouldn’t go through because of tensions between the U.S. and China over President Joe Bide’s new export sanctions on technology products. Those tensions eased somewhat last week when President Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at an economic cooperation conference in California.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan explained the combined company will “enable global enterprises to embrace private and hybrid cloud environments, making them more secure and resilient.”
With the transaction completed, VMware shares stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Shares of Broadcom were down less than 1% Wednesday. They had hit an all-time high Monday.
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