Brussels, 05/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 5 March, the European Commission approved the acquisition of the Swedish company Telelogic by US group IBM. The two companies make tools for modelling software. Following its investigation (opened on 3 October 2007, see EUROPE 9516), the Commission concluded that the proposed concentration would not present a serious risk to competition within the European Economic Area (EEA) or substantial part of it.
The activities of IBM and Telelogic overlap mainly on the modelling tools and management requirements markets. The Commission noted that, while it was technically possible for IBM to prevent its software being compatible with others' software, the entity resulting from the concentration would have no interest in pursuing such a strategy since the cost would be excessive compared with any advantages that could be gained. IBM announced in 2007 that it would spend €490 million to acquire Telelogic.
The day before the Commission's decision, IBM announced that it was teaming up with partners in Austria and Poland to make a computer for eastern Europe that contained no Microsoft software. IBM said it was offering the PCs based on the open-source Linux operating system together with Red Hat software distributor VDEL of Austria and Polish distributor and services firm LX Polska. The PCs will include IBM's Lotus Symphony software, a rival format to Microsoft's Office Open XML document format which Microsoft is trying to get adopted as an ISO internationally approved standard. (L.C.)