Reply to post: Re: The EU?

European Commission sticks 'in-depth' antitrust probe into Nvidia-Arm merger plan

Len
Headmaster

Re: The EU?

It's simply market power. About half a billion of the world's wealthiest people live in the EU and it's the world's largest rich market.

If, let's say, the Argentinian anti-trust regulator decides not to approve this deal then Nvidia could decide to withdraw from the Argentinian market and let the takeover go ahead against the wishes of the Argentinian regulator. Due to its market power it's not that easy for Nvidia to decide to withdraw from the EU market with its half a billion customers, it would probably make the merger not worth it.

In 2000 the American company General Electric decided not to buy the American company Honeywell (a deal that was already agreed by the American antitrust regulator) because the EU regulator blocked it on competition grounds (a reduced competition in jet engines to be precise). This unintentional global effect of EU decisions is called the Brussels Effect.

Similarly the Chinese regulator also gets a say in this M&A process, a big market with lots of market power.

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