Broadcom set to win EU nod for $61-bn VMware deal, sources say

Proposed acquisition of cloud computing firm

U.S. chipmaker Broadcom is set to gain conditional EU antitrust approval for its $61 billion proposed acquisition of cloud computing firm VMware, people familiar with the matter said.

The European Commission’s clearance is tied to Broadcom’s interoperability remedies to rivals to address competition concerns, the people said.

The EU antitrust watchdog, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by July 17, and Broadcom declined to comment.

One of the remedies focuses on Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters (FC HBAs) and is targeted at rival Marvell Technology, one of the people said. Marvell Technology did not respond to a request for comment.

FC HBAs are storage adapters that connect servers to storage located outside the server on a storage-area network using the fiber channel protocol, typically through a switch. Broadcom is a leading supplier of FC HBAs.

Broadcom supplies chips used in data centres for networking and specialised chips that speed up AI work.