IBM’s proposed plan to acquire HashiCorp, a leading cloud software company, is now under investigation by U.K.’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA. The CMA is seeking to determine whether the acquisition could reduce market competition.
The investigation comes after IBM first revealed its plans to buy HashiCorp earlier in 2024 for $4.6 billion. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has additionally launched a probe of its own that was first detailed in a July filing.
For phase one of the review, the CMA is inviting “any interested party” to comment on the deal as it considers if the merger will harm competition in the United Kingdom. The invitation for public comment closes on Jan. 16, 2025.
The deadline for CMA’s decision on potentially escalating the investigation further is February 25, 2025. Both the company’s shareholders have already approved the deal.
IBM plans to spin HashiCorp into its software business rather than place it inside Red Hat.
IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna has said to expect more AI capabilities in HashiCorp cloud infrastructure automation tools once the acquisition is complete.
Approximately 20% of the Forbes Global 2000 are HashiCorp customers.
“HashiCorp, to us, is an accelerant for IBM strategy and for [IBM’s] software strategy. And Hashi helps in being offensive in terms of giving us an overall better portfolio so even more clients want to do business with us in the environment they are going to,” Krishna said last year.