EU clears Sybase takeover by Germany's SAP

European competition regulators on Tuesday approved German business software giant SAP's 5.8-billion-dollar (4.5-billion-euro) takeover of California-based Sybase.

The European Commission cleared the takeover after concluding that it "would not significantly impede effective competition" in the database, middleware and enterprise application software sectors.

A statement said an EU "investigation did not reveal any concerns, in particular because the merged entity will not control a 'must have' product for which there would be no alternative."

The acquisition is SAP's largest since it bought Business Object of France in 2007 for 4.8 billion euros and is intended to help it compete better with US business software giant Oracle, particularly on mobile devices.

(c) 2010 AFP