AMD's $35 billion acquisition of Xilinx is now expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, which is a few months after AMD and Xilinix's originally proposed closing of the deal before the end of 2021.
AMD has cleared regulatory hurdles in all relevant agencies except China's SAMR. AMD entered the second phase of the approval process in China in July. Earlier this month, news filtered out that AMD had filed certain undefined 'behavioral remedies' to appease Chinese regulators. By mid-month, news emerged that China's antitrust agency, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), was still market-testing AMD's proposed remedies.
AMD CEO Lisa Su has expressed confidence that the deal would close in 2021, telling us during an interview earlier this year that completing the Xilinx deal was one of her key goals for 2021. She has reiterated that optimism over the last few months, and regulators in the UK and the US have approved the deal. For now, the slight delay appears to be more a matter of timing rather than any structural problems with the proposed acquisition that would scuttle the deal.
AMD's acquisition of Xilinx comes during a time of heightened tension between the US and Chinese governments as they remain embroiled in a trade war. Still, China's recent approval of Intel's sale of its NAND and SSD businesses to SK hynix indicates that such mergers are still possible, albeit with some restrictions. Meanwhile, Nvidia's proposed blockbuster $40 billion acquisition of Arm is all but dead due to regulators, but that deal faces challenges in nearly every geography due to very broad concerns of potential anti-competitive behavior. AMD's proposed deal hasn't faced any opposition approaching the challenges surrounding the Nvidia/ARM tie-up.
Here's AMD's statement on its adjusted expectations for the acquisition:
"SILICON VALLEY, Calif. — Dec. 30, 2021 — AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today released the following statement related to the status of global regulatory approvals for AMD's proposed acquisition of Xilinx.
"We continue making good progress on the required regulatory approvals to close our transaction. While we had previously expected that we would secure all approvals by the end of 2021, we have not yet completed the process and we now expect the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2022. Our conversations with regulators continue to progress productively, and we expect to secure all required approvals."
There are no additional changes to the previously announced terms or plans regarding the transaction and the companies continue to look forward to the proposed combination creating the industry's high-performance and adaptive computing leader."
