Dive Brief:
- The European Union is set to approve Dell's bid to purchase EMC Corp., according to a Reuters report.
- The commission will formerly release a ruling on Feb. 29, but the antitrust approval does not ask for compromises in the $67 billion deal, according to Reuters.
- With its planned purchase of the data storage company, Dell is working to compete against major players in the tech industry, from IBM to Cisco Systems.
Dive Insight:
As Fortune notes, the EU approval is "noteworthy," as regulators are not particularly keen on large corporations that, they say, obstruct competition. With the sheer size of Dell's purchase, many in the industry are closely watching each step of $67 billion deal.
It is unlikely that the deal will drastically reshape the tech industry, as the two companies have relatively complementary portfolios and have done work together in the past. But, the deal —the largest ever between two technology companies — creates another major player in the market, especially as Dell continues to move away from personal computing.
Recently, Dell has run into some trouble with its financing and required more time to raise the initial $10 billion of its planned $45 billion in loans to purchase EMC. Even though Dell has good credit ratings, with the nervous state of the current market, financing has not gone as smoothly as the company anticipated.
