The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given the thumbs-up to SK Hynix's agreed $9bn purchase of Intel's NAND and SSD businesses, ruling that the buyout would have no negative impact on local purchasers.

In April, the non-ministerial government department [1]decided to take a further look at the details of the $9bn deal between the South Korean semiconductor biz and Chipzilla that had been [2]agreed last October .

Using its own CMA lingo, the regulator said it wanted to know if the result of the agreement would lead to a "substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services."

[3]

In particular, it was concerned about the possible overlap in the supply of NAND flash memory and solid-state drives.

[4]SK Hynix hits 3-year revenue high as extreme ultraviolet production kicks off in earnest

[5]Intel: 'Another one to two years before the industry is able to completely catch up with demand'

[6]UK's Competition and Markets Authority sticks probe in SK Hynix's $9bn proposed buy of Intel's NAND and SSD units

[7]Intel offloads NAND business to South Korea's SK Hynix for a cool $9bn

But after carrying out an investigation, it found that these concerns did not stack up.

The CMA found that in the event of the hook-up going ahead, there would still be "strong remaining competitors" in the market who told the inquiry that they have their own plans to "expand their capacity."

[8]

At the end of the 31-page ruling, Eleni Gouliou, director of mergers at the CMA, signed off saying: "The CMA does not believe that it is – or may be the case – that the Merger may be expected to result in an SLC [significant lessening of competition] within a market or markets in the United Kingdom."

You can read the full report and the CMA's decision [9]here [PDF]. ®

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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/28/cma_sk_hynix_intel_probe/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/20/intel_sells_nand_business_to_sk_hynix/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQQiEjiGhmPLFCf@37QiOwAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/27/sk_hynix_q2_2021/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/23/intel_q2_2021/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/28/cma_sk_hynix_intel_probe/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/20/intel_sells_nand_business_to_sk_hynix/

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQQiEjiGhmPLFCf@37QiOwAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6103c0288fa8f504411ef4c6/SK_hynix_Decision_-_FINAL_300721.pdf

[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/