UK competition watchdog probes $61 bln Broadcom-VMware deal

Britain’s competition regulator said on Wednesday it had started the first phase of an investigation into U.S. chipmaker Broadcom Inc’s $61 billion acquisition of cloud-computing firm VMware Inc.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in November it was investigating whether the deal between the two U.S.-listed companies could substantially hurt competition in Britain, adding that it had until March 22 to decide.