The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has cleared Dell’s proposed acquisition of EMC to proceed, according to EMC.
The mandatory waiting period mandated by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act expired just before midnight on Feb. 22, meaning that one more hurdle has been cleared for the blockbuster and debt-riddled $67 billion deal, announced in October.
The deal must still be approved by EMC (EMC) shareholders and meet regulatory requirements in some other geographies.
Last week, Reuters reported that European Union regulators were ready to sign off on the deal, noteworthy news given that they have been tougher on mega-mergers than their U.S. counterparts.
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Dell-EMC together would offer the world’s biggest storage business as well as a strong presence in servers that run corporate data centers as well as VMware that has been called the crown jewel of the deal and also its most controversial component.
Top 5 questions on Dell-EMC deal
VMware shareholders were not thrilled that privately held Dell appears to be getting ownership of that company at a discount—EMC owns about 80% of VMware. That sentiment caused EMC chief executives to restructure a proposed plan to combine VMware’s cloud business with EMC’s Virtustream business.
If and when the deal is finally done, Michael Dell will be chief executive of the combined company.