IBM’s $6.4B HashiCorp acquisition cleared by UK

The U.K.’s antitrust authority has given the go-ahead to IBM’s planned multibillion acquisition of infrastructure software company HashiCorp. In a brief case update published today, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had “cleared the anticipated acquisition by IBM of HashiCorp,” and it would publish the full rationale for its decision in due course. The announcement comes some 10 months after IBM first revealed it was doling out $6.4 billion for HashiCorp as it sought deeper inroads into the hybrid cloud realm — building on the $34 billion it paid for Red Hat in 2019, and $4.6 billion for Apptio in 2023. IBM had indicated that it expected to close the HashiCorp deal by the end of 2024, but as is the case with such sizeable transactions — particularly those involving two publicly-traded companies — it was always likely to attract regulatory scrutiny. And so in December, the CMA launched an early “phase 1” investigation, inviting comment from key stakeholders. While ... Read full article.