Brussels, 12/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 9 October 2007, the European Commission authorised the planned buy-up of ASAP Software Express, Inc. (US), ASAP Software SAS (France), 26ème Avenue SAS (France) and SCI Siman (France) (together "ASAP"), active in the EEA as resellers of packaged software, by the US-based Dell Inc. The four companies are currently indirectly controlled by Dutch Corporate Express N.V. and sell software in the European Economic Area (EEA).
The Commission's examination of the proposed transaction showed that, given the different business focus of Dell (retail sale of computing hardware) compared with ASAP (repair resale of packaged software), horizontal overlaps between the parties' activities would occur in only four member states (UK, Sweden, Belgium and Netherlands) and would be minimal. As regards possible vertical relationships between the software resale activities and the hardware manufacturing activities in Ireland, the Commission found that Dell would have neither the ability nor the incentive to close off competitors. The Commission therefore concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it. (O.L.)