Nvidia's Purchase of Arm Raises Serious Competition Concerns, UK Regulator Says -- Update
August 20 2021 - 9:56AM
Dow Jones News
By Ian Walker
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said Friday that
Nvidia Corp.'s $40 billion acquisition of British chip designer Arm
from SoftBank Group Corp. raises competition concerns and should
now be progressed for further investigation.
The regulator said the deal could lead to a loss of competition
and stifle innovation across a number of markets leading to more
expensive, or lower quality products.
The CMA said Nvidia has offered a behavioral remedy but that
this wouldn't alleviate its concerns. A behavioral remedy regulates
the continuing behavior of a business.
"We look forward to the opportunity to address the CMA's initial
views and resolve any concerns the Government may have," a Nvidia
spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
"We remain confident that this transaction will be beneficial to
Arm, its licensees, competition, and the U.K.," the spokesperson
added.
On April 19, the British government said that it wanted the CMA
to investigate the deal, citing national security grounds.
The U.K. Secretary of State will decide whether the deal will
need an in-depth phase 2 investigation on both competition and
national security grounds, or whether it should be passed back to
the CMA to investigate on competition grounds only.
A Nvidia spokesman had previously said that the company expected
the approval process to take 18 months from the signing of the
deal, which was announced on Sept. 14, 2020.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 20, 2021 09:49 ET (13:49 GMT)
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