The Federal Trade Commission has approved Dell‘s (NYSE: DELL) $2.4 billion acquisition of information technology management company Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT) Reuters reports.
Dell said in its original announcement of the transaction it wants to increase the amount of intellectual property in its software portfolio.
The company was competing against a group led by private equity firm Insight Venture Partners, who initially offered $2 billion total to acquire Quest in March.
Dell, not publically identified by Quest at the time, then offered to buy the enterprise management software maker for nearly $2.3 billion in June, according to reporter Diane Bartz.
Citing an FTC announcement, Bartz reports the agency and the Justice Department placed the transaction on a list of deals that can be approved quickly by the FTC and the department’s antitrust division.