UPDATED 13:33 EDT / FEBRUARY 29 2016

NEWS

Dell-EMC merger receives approval from EU regulators

Less than a week after receiving the blessings of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Dell Inc.’s proposed acquisition of EMC Corp. has cleared another major regulatory hurdle on the other side of the pond. The European Commission announced this morning that it’s decided to follow in the footsteps of its stateside counterpart and approve the $67 billion deal.

The agency’s head, Margrethe Vestager, noted in a statement that the move to greenlight the transaction was met with no internal opposition. Such unequivocal support from regulators is rare for acquisitions in the 11-figure range due to the possible negative impact on competitive conditions and customer choice. However, the European Commision determined that the purchase of EMC won’t grow Dell’s share of the data center storage market to the point where rivals may struggle to stay in business.

The ruling supports the optimistic stance that Roy Read, the executive appointed by the company to lead the implementation the merger, took in an open letter to employees published earlier this month. The memo echoed an earlier statement from EMC boss Joe Tucci that the acquisition is on track to complete by its October deadline, but didn’t say anything about the road ahead being easy. Dell still needs to receive regulatory approval in nearly a dozen countries and avoid the potentially deal-breaking tax bill that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service may impose on the transaction.

Then there’s also the matter of winning over the shareholders of EMC and virtualization subsidiary VMware Inc., who are naturally looking to squeeze the most out of the deal. The pressure from the market has already forced Dell to cancel its plans for a joint cloud venture between the two companies and is showing no signs of relenting. Unless a compromise is reached with investors by October, the price of the merger may end up exceeding $70 billion.

Image via DasWortgewand

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU