Nvidia offers EU concessions over $54 billion Arm deal

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BRUSSELS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Nvidia (NVDA.O) has offered concessions in a bid to secure EU antitrust approval for its $54 billion acquisition of British chip designer Arm, a European Commission filing showed on Wednesday.

The deal announced by world's biggest maker of graphics and AI chips last year has sparked concerns in the semiconductor industry over whether Arm could remain a neutral player licensing intellectual property to customers and rivals.

The EU competition enforcer, which did not provide details of the concessions in line with its policy, set an Oct. 27 deadline for its decision.

The logo of Nvidia Corporation is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu Acquire Licensing Rights

It will now seek feedback from rivals and customers before deciding whether to accept the concessions, demand more or open a four-month long investigation.

Nvidia has said it would maintain Arm as a neutral technology supplier as it aims to allay concerns from customers such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O), Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O).

Arm customers Broadcom (AVGO.O), MediaTek (2454.TW) and Marvell (MRVL.O) are supporters of the deal.

Arm, owned by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), is a major player in global semiconductors. Its designs power nearly every smartphone and millions of other devices.

Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely

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Thomson Reuters

An agenda-setting and market-moving journalist, Foo Yun Chee is a 20-year veteran at Reuters. Her stories on high profile mergers have pushed up the European telecoms index, lifted companies' shares and helped investors decide on their move. Her knowledge and experience of European antitrust laws and developments helped her broke stories on Microsoft, Google, Amazon, numerous market-moving mergers and antitrust investigations. She has previously reported on Greek politics and companies, when Greece's entry into the eurozone meant it punched above its weight on the international stage, as well as Dutch corporate giants and the quirks of Dutch society and culture that never fail to charm readers.

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