Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: EC clears Intel, Altera deal, (Oct 15, 2015)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

The European Commission has cleared unconditionally Intel Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Altera Corp., which are both U.S.-based suppliers of electronic components.

Both companies design and manufacture different types of semiconductors. In particular, Intel Corp. designs and manufactures microprocessors or central processing units and Altera designs and supplies programmable logic devices.

“Intel’s growth strategy is to expand our core assets into profitable, complementary market segments,” stated Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, when the acquisition was announced in June 2015. “With this acquisition, we will harness the power of Moore’s Law to make the next generation of solutions not just better, but able to do more. Whether to enable new growth in the network, large cloud data centers or [Internet of Things] segments, our customers expect better performance at lower costs. This is the promise of Moore’s Law and it’s the innovation enabled by Intel and Altera joining forces. We look forward to working with the talented team at Altera to deliver this value to our customers and stockholders.”

“I am glad that we can approve this transaction, which shows that multibillion euro deals in complex industries can be cleared unconditionally after an initial investigation,” stated Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager. “Our decision demonstrates that relevant deals can be swiftly approved if they raise no competition concern.”

Companies: Intel Corp.; Altera Corp.

News: AcquisitionsMergers Antitrust