Nothing's done until it's done.
https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/03/12/signs-emerge-ibm-red-hat-merger-may-face-delay-ibm-says-its-still-on/
4 replies (most recent on top)
Real reason: Regulators normally discover the company being purchased has inflated earnings and exaggerated its value. This time it was the company doing the purchase.
IBM is very good at getting thru govt regulation. Just look at the past two Lenovo deals. IBM has made an all in bet on Redhat. There is a reason Google was the runner up in this bidding process (they recognized this as a good bet too). How IBM chooses to pay for this bet is still in the air. The first pass (dividend raises and stock buyback ending) was not well received by Wall Street. IBM is now rethinking that approach, and I expect some portfolio diversification. YES that means some layoffs and spinoffs. Again look at the gross profits of your division. If the products you work on, are not up close to 50% profit margins, consider yourself in the bullseye.
IBM still does not have found all the money required to complete the purchase. Let’s see what happens in the next few months from a divestiture prospective...
'Regulators are apparently concerned about how a Red Hat-IBM merger might affect cloud computing.'
Shows that the regulators don't understand the cloud market. IBM is largely irrelevant, and Red Hat is yesterday's technology. Worrying about the combination being anticompetitive is like worrying about a blackberry and Nokia merger impacting cell phone handsets.