U.K Competition Regulator To Investigate Nvidia's $40 Bln Acquisition Of Arm

(RTTNews) - The U.K. competition regulator Wednesday said it would investigate Nvidia's $40 billion acquisition of chipmaker Arm Limited from SoftBank Group Corp.

"The CMA will look at the deal's possible effect on competition in the UK. The CMA is likely to consider whether, following the takeover, Arm has an incentive to withdraw, raise prices or reduce the quality of its IP licensing services to NVIDIA's rivals," CMA announced in a statement.

In September, US-based chip maker Nvidia announced its deal to buy business of UK-based Arm in a deal worth $40 billion. Arm develops and licenses intellectual property and software tools for chip designs.

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: "The chip technology industry is worth billions and critical to many of the products that we use most in our everyday lives. We will work closely with other competition authorities around the world to carefully consider the impact of the deal and ensure that it doesn't ultimately result in consumers facing more expensive or lower quality products."

NVDA closed Wednesday's trading at $504.58, down $31.61 or 5.90%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $1.84 or 0.36% in the after-hours trade.