The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)display, will launch an investigation into IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp, a software company that provides value-added business services, for US$4 billion, announced in April this year, and is expected to clarify whether this transaction will affect market competition.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it will invite the public to provide relevant opinions on the transaction and expects to compile various views before January 1. It is expected to combine public opinions with previous investigation results to assess whether IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp will have an impact on market competition.
HashiCorp was co-founded by Los Angeles developers Mitchell Hashimoto and Armon Dadgar in 2012. It mainly helps manage cloud infrastructure and security maintenance through the infrastructure as code (IaC) tool Terraform and automated architecture.
The acquisition of HashiCorp is expected to allow IBM to take over its approximately 4400 clients, further expanding its presence in the cloud and artificial intelligence market.
However, the UK Competition and Markets Authority notified HashiCorp in August of this year that it would investigate the IBM deal to determine whether it constitutes a violation of market competition or monopoly. Meanwhile, the US Federal Trade Commission is also investigating the IBM deal.
