With Conditions, MOFCOM Clears Seagate/Samsung Deal

On December 12th, 2011, the Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") conditionally approved the acquisition of the hard disk drive ("HDD") business of the Korean Samsung Electronics ("Samsung") by the US Seagate Technology ("Seagate")¹. This is the 4th conditional approval of this year and the 10th conditional approval by MOFCOM since China's Anti-Monopoly Law ("AML") entered into effect in 2008.

According to MOFCOM's announcement, this review process lasted for almost 7 months starting from May 19th when the notification was first submitted to MOFCOM. The review process entered into the Extended Phase II and was cleared on the next business day of the expiry date of this phase.²

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