United Kingdom: Announced CMA evaluation of proposed remedies after interim decision in its investigation into the Synopsys/Ansys merger

On 8 January 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it is currently evaluating remedies proposed by Synopsys and Ansys on 31 December 2024 as part of their merger. The proposed remedies include the divestment of Ansys' power consumption analysis product for digital chips and Synopsys' global optics and photonics software business. The CMA has indicated that these undertakings, or a modified version, might be accepted under the Enterprise Act 2002, potentially allowing the merger to proceed without a Phase 2 investigation. This development follows a CMA interim decision on 20 December 2024, which raised competition concerns regarding the global supply of register-transfer-level power consumption analysis, optics software, and photonics software. The CMA expressed that the merger could lead to higher prices, reduced quality, and less innovation without sufficient remedies.