Broadcom plans to close $69 billion VMWare deal on Wednesday

Broadcom (AVGO.O) said it planned to close its $69 billion acquisition of cloud computing firm VMWare (VMW.N) earlier this week, wrapping up one of the biggest takeover deals in the technology industry that was closely scrutinized by regulators globally.

The chipmaker has now received all regulatory approvals for the purchase after China approved the acquisition with additional restrictive conditions earlier on Tuesday, it said.

VMWare server software should work with local hardware and the deal should not restrict customers from purchasing and using Broadcom’s hardware products such as storage adapters, the Chinese regulator said in a statement.

Some investors in the companies had feared about the outcome of the deal after reports said last month that rising Sino-US tensions could lead China’s regulator to scuttle the deal.

Tensions between Beijing and Washington had mounted after the Biden administration introduced tougher controls on exports of high-end chips to China in October.

Broadcom shares were down more than 1 per cent, while VMware was down 4.6 per cent. The deal was previously expected to close by Nov. 26.

Brokerage Bernstein attributed the share moves to some technical impacts from arbitrage trades around the deal.