IBM to win unconditional EU okay for $34 billion Red Hat deal - sources

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. tech giant International Business Machines Corp is set to secure unconditional EU approval for its $34 billion (£27 billion) bid for software company Red Hat, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

IBM is seeking to expand its subscription-based software offerings via the deal, its biggest to date, to counter slowing software sales and waning demand for mainframe servers.

It would also help it catch up with Amazon, Alphabet Inc and Microsoft in the fast growing cloud computing business.

The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by June 27, and IBM declined to comment.

Founded in 1993, Red Hat specialises in Linux operating systems, the most popular type of open-source software and an alternative to proprietary software made by Microsoft.

U.S. regulatory authorities gave the green light to the deal last month without demanding concessions.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Elaine Hardcastle)