IBM’s Acquisition of HashiCorp Investigated by UK Competition Authority
The U.K. government is investigating whether IBM’s acquisition of cloud infrastructure firm HashiCorp will result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within markets in the country. IBM announced its intention to buy HashiCorp for $6.4 billion in April 2024 to help it support its customers’ growing AI-related demands. HashiCorp provides hybrid and multi-cloud lifecycle management products, such as infrastructure as code tool Terraform, which facilitate building and running AI applications. HashiCorp will operate as a division of IBM Software rather than being brought into Red Hat, IBM’s open-source subsidiary. It said that the deal would help its products reach a larger audience. The Competition and Markets Authority notified the two companies of an upcoming Phase 1 probe on Aug. 1, 2024, and formally launched it on Dec. 30. It will have to make a preliminary decision on whether to carry out a full-scale investigation by Feb. 25 and relevant third-parties can submit comments up to Jan. 16. IBM declined to provide additional comment. TechRepublic has reached out to HashiCorp for a response. IBM-HashiCorp deal has …