Reuters and other news outlets are reporting that the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has approved Synopsys’ acquisition of Ansys, subject to the following conditions:

• Synopsys must divest its Optical Solutions Group (OSG) business, and Ansys must sell off its PowerArtist business. Done. The companies have already queued up sales of these assets to Keysight Technologies, assuming their deal eventually closes.
• Synopsys and Ansys must continue to supply EDA solutions to Chinese customers on “fair and non-discriminatory terms”. Reuters doesn’t define what that means, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a “subject to US and Chinese law”-type of interpretation.
• They must also allow customers to purchase and use their products independently, which I think is aimed at ensuring that there’s no bundling/upselling to raise prices.
• Finally, as far as I’ve been able to find out, the companies must ensure their products continue to support industry-standard formats and interoperability with third-party electronic design automation (EDA) vendors. One source I saw said those interop agreements were “for Chinese customers,” but that may be a Chinese-regulator’s perspective; interop, in general, seems in Synopsys+Ansys’s best interest.

SAMR said that Synopsys and Ansys have agreed to these conditions and that they will remain in effect for 10 years. SAMR will monitor compliance with these conditions, but I have no idea what it could do in 3, 5, or 9 years if the conditions aren’t met. Impose a fine? Sanction the company, somehow? It certainly won’t be able to unwind the merger of the two companies.

This all seems quite reasonable, and is either already in progress (as in the case of the planned divestitures to Keysight) or just good business practice for software companies.

Bottom line: The deal can finally, finally, move ahead. The original agreement said the deal had to be closed by July 15, but it also included a provision to extend that deadline.