(Bloomberg) — Synopsys Inc.’s $34 billion takeover of software developer Ansys Inc. will be investigated by the UK’s antitrust watchdog amid potential competition concerns over the all-American deal.
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The Competition and Markets Authority said Friday it had opened a formal “phase one” merger probe into the acquisition and set a Dec 20. date to decide whether to escalate it to an in-depth probe.
Synopsys, based in Sunnyvale, California, makes software used to design semiconductors, while Ansys makes simulation software used by engineers to help predict how products will work in the real world. The purchase, which was announced in January, is aimed at expanding Synopsys’ customer base and its suite of products. In the announcement, the firms said that shareholders of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Ansys will receive $197 in cash and 0.345 shares of Synopsys stock per share.
“We remain confident in a positive resolution of the ongoing regulatory review processes, and we continue to expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2025,” a Synopsys spokesperson said.
The CMA has stepped up its scrutiny of the tech sector in recent years, taking a closer look at mergers from AI to cloud and chips. Its new digital markets powers, which will give the agency more scope to monitor big tech firms, will come into force later this year.
(Updates with a comment from a Synopsys spokesperson in the fourth paragraph)
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