Chipmaker Broadcom has completed its $69 billion acquisition of cloud software maker VMware.
The deal has finally gone through, despite regulatory approval obstacles posed by China.
The combined company will focus on helping enterprises create and modernize their private and hybrid cloud environments.
VMware will continue to offer its catalog of cloud and Edge software.
Broadcom first made a bid to buy the company in May 2022. The proposal raised some concern among VMware users, as it was unclear which product lines Broadcom would continue to support, with the company having a history of acquiring businesses and selling off parts shortly after.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said that Broadcom will not be doing this with VMware. The company has committed to investing $2 billion a year in the company, half of which will be used for R&D, the other half for the "deployment of VMware solutions through VMware and partner professional services."
He added: "Broadcom has a long track record of investing in the businesses we acquire to drive sustainable growth, and that will continue with VMware for the benefit of the stakeholders we serve."
The deal was significantly delayed as Broadcom required approval from China's regulatory authorities, a market where the company makes billions in revenue. Until November 22, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) kept quiet, neither approving nor denying the acquisition. The deal would have expired on November 26.
The Financial Times reported in October 2023 that the SAMR was likely to delay its approval in retaliation to the updated restrictions on selling chips and advanced technology to China imposed by the US.
China relented on the deal just days after China’s President Xi Jinping met US President Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
VMware was founded in 1998, and was the first company to provide Intel x86 servers with a virtualization platform, or hypervisor. The company has been owned by EMC and Dell in the past. Reuters predicted in May 2022 that the acquisition would triple the revenue Broadcom makes from software.
