EC clears £44bn Dell EMC takeover

Dell’s blockbuster £44 billion takeover of EMC has been given a boost after the European Commission (EC) followed its US counterparts the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in approving the deal.

The EC said an investigation showed that the union would not distort competition by handing the merged entity a dominant share of the storage market or shut out competitors from participating in the VMware ecosystem.

Strong competition from the likes of Hitachi, HP, IBM and NetApp was cited in the storage space, while the EC also noted VMware’s business strategy has been hardware neutral to date and that Dell had significant rivals in the server space.

“Given the strategic importance of the data storage sector, I am pleased that we have been able to approve Dell’s multi-billion dollar takeover of EMC within a short space of time while making sure that there would be no adverse effects on customers,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of European competition policy.

“I appreciate the close cooperation we have enjoyed with our US counterparts at the Federal Trade Commission.”

If the deal, which was first announced in October, is completed, it would be the biggest in tech history. Unsurprisingly, such a large transaction has hit some hurdles, not least VMware’s falling share price. There have also been concerns about the impact of a hefty tax bill.

Antony Savvas

York, UK-based Antony Savvas has been a technology journalist for 25 years and has expertise in all major areas of enterprise and consumer IT. He has worked for a number of leading technology magazines and websites and his work is syndicated across the internet. He also undertakes corporate work for some of the world's leading technology companies.