EU antitrust regulators will decide by October 19 whether to clear US software giant Microsoft's $7.5 billion (roughly Rs. 54,300 crores) acquisition of privately held coding website GitHub.
Microsoft, which wants to acquire the firm to reinforce its cloud computing business against rival Amazon, requested European Union approval for the deal last Friday, a filing on the European Commission website showed on Monday.
The EU competition enforcer can either give the green light with or without demanding concessions, or it can open a full-scale investigation if it has serious concerns.
GitHub, the world's largest code host with more than 28 million developers using its platform, is Microsoft's largest takeover since the company bought LinkedIn for $26 billion (roughly Rs. 1.9 lakh crores) in 2016.
Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has tried to assuage users' worries that GitHub might favour Microsoft products over competitors after the deal, saying GitHub would continue to be an open platform that works with all public clouds.
© Thomson Reuters 2018
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