Broadcom insisted a proposed deal to acquire VMware will close soon and prior to the expiration of its merger agreement, after it missed its own expectations to finalise the tie-up today (30 October).

In an update on the pending deal, the US chip giant reiterated it received legal clearance to acquire the cloud software player from numerous countries including the UK, Australia and Japan, along with as foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions.

It added there is no legal impediment to closing under US merger regulations.

However, a major hurdle lies in obtaining clearance from China’s authorities: it provided no update on its progress.

Financial Times reported earlier this month China may take longer to approve the deal in response to tightening US chip sanctions.

Broadcom predicted it would close the deal by end-October after receiving the go ahead from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority earlier this month.

It now expects to “close the transaction promptly following satisfaction of remaining condition”.

Under the terms of the agreement, Broadcom added VMware shareholders could receive either $142.50 in cash or take 0.2520 of its stock for each share held.