Concessions offered by Nvidia have failed to address concerns that Nvidia – a customer of ARM – would have an advantage over other licensees,Reuterssaid referencing unnamed sources. The official deadline for the European Commission to end its preliminary review is now October 27, but it seems that a four-month investigation into the deal is now set to follow.
Reports also now refer to a $54 billion deal, a significant increase from the $40 billion price tag originally put on the deal
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News of the European Commission's extended investigation comes a few months after the UK decided to extend its own investigation into the deal and include consideration of national security as well as competition (see ).
Nvidia is thought to have made additional concessions to European authorities about keeping ARM independent and preserving competition.
The European Commission is now likely to go to rivals and customers of Nvidia and ARM and seek opinions in the next stage of the investigation. Many ARM licensees are thought to be opposed to the deal although Broadcom, MediaTek and Marvell are said to be in favour.
The deal is also likely to depend on Chinese regulatory approval. A previous major semiconductor deal – Qualcomm's bid to takeover NXP Semiconductor – failed in 2018 when China remained quiet as the time for the deal ran out.
In general, for such deals, the longer regulatory investigations drag on the less likely successful completion becomes.
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