EU says yes.
UK & US say no.
US agrees to remedies after a court battle.
UK's CMA wins most appeals, and they'll win when VMware appeals.
Of course this is all speculation. The Microsoft-Activision deal will teach us a lot.
11 replies (most recent on top)
My prediction. It goes through. Hock shows you what it is like to visit a prison shower.
If there wasn't that huge break-up fee for not consummating the deal, then Hock Tan would have already backed away for this acquisition. If he's forced to make big concessions to gain regulatory approval, then expect headcount cuts and spin-offs to follow quickly. His track record is clear -- he has just 3 priorities, profit, profit and profit.
It will go through eventually, but probably with some back and forth between the regulators... I wouldn't be surprised at all if the deal closes early next year.
Video games are not the same as essential infrastructure. The UK government also uses BC and VMware technologies heavily. China was the last hold out to the Dell EMC merge but they eventually allowed Dell back in to sell their technology. Will UK really be willing to block BC and VMware from selling? Also customers can still probably access our products through third party so if UK is the only hold out then the merge will go through. I personally wasn’t for this merge but I’ve come to accept reality.
UK isn’t doing economically compared to its peers, it needs to be more biz friendly.
Will BC want a long drawn out court battle though?
Yes if it has a strong chance of triumphing. Hok will also want to save face so he will see this through
Will BC want a long drawn out court battle though?
UK will cave eventually.
What do you base that on? Companies that appeal their ruling by the UK's CMA lose 66% of the time. The bar to win an appeal is very high, basically it must be an error of law. That's why companies lose the appeal so often.
Or are you suggesting the CMA will cave because of political pressure? They'll just reverse their ruling, say they changed their mind? You've clearly never worked in the government!
They didn't cave for Microsoft, so why would they cave for Broadcom?
Now everything depends on what US does.
Not good for all the UK employee's if that's the case
UK will cave eventually. BC might pull out of the market temporarily just like Dell did with China. Our products are more essential than video games.