https://wccftech.com/amd-bound-to-make-products-compatible-with-chinese-market-as-part-of-xilinx-approval/

Chip designer Adanced Micro Devices, Inc's (AMD) $35 billion acquisition of field programmable gate array (FPGA) provider Xilinx, Inc has secured conditional approval from the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) clearing the last remaining global hurdle towards approval. AMD had announced the deal back in 2020, and had expected it to close by the end of 2021. However, the Chinese approval, which was the final step towards consumption, was delayed reportedly due to the SAMR investigating proposals to counter potential anticompetitive outcomes from the approval. Today's approval, announced by the SAMR in the form of a press release, conditions the deal going forward on the merged entity not bundling its products in order to force customer purchases.

The Chinese approval, which had been rumored before today's announcement, was initially unexpected by Wall Street analysts. After AMD and Xilinx announced the merger in October 2021, Wall Street analysts initially opined that Xilinx management would reject the deal due to Xilinx's lead in the FPGA sector, despite the fact that AMD had offered a 20% premium over the company's share price at the time of announcement. The analysts also remained skeptical about positive synergies to AMD from the deal, believing that the company had little to gain technologically through the affair.