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HashiCorp (NASDAQ:HCP) ticked up by 0.4% at least partly amid a report about the antitrust review of its planned sale to IBM (NYSE:IBM).
The Dept. of Justice, which has a history of reviewing IBM (IBM) deals, didn’t have any issues with the $6.4 billion sale of Hashicorp (HCP) and was ready to allow it to close, according to a CTFN report on Friday, which cited people close to the matter.
The issue is that the Federal Trade Commission didn’t have enough time to finish its review and so IBM had to pull and refile its premerger notification last week to give the FTC more time to review it, according to the report. It’s not clear what the FTC is specifically looking at, though both sources were optimistic that a second request could be avoided.
The CTFN item comes after Capitol Forum reported on Thursday that the FTC is studying the potential for reduced competition and innovation in cloud software and encryption tools. The FTC staff is asking if customers of HashiCorp (HCP) could find alternatives to its products after the deal is completed. Open-source products OpenTofu and OpenBao are among the options customers may have after the transaction is done.
HashiCorp (HCP) shares ticked higher by 1.1% on June 12 amid comments IBM made about the deal at a Mizuho luncheon. IBM is said to have spoken about the chance of the HashiCorp deal getting antitrust approval after the HSR notification was pulled and refiled, traders told Seeking Alpha at the time.
IBM in late April agreed to buy HashiCorp (HCP) for $35 a share in cash.