The U.K.’s Competitiveness and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated a formal “phase 1” investigation into Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) planned acquisition of Juniper Networks.

The CMA has claimed that it is in the early stages of examining whether the deal is probably to “result in a significant lessening of competition inside any market place or markets in the United Kingdom for items or expert services.”

HPE announced plans to receive Juniper Networks back in January, a deal developed to unify their respective strengths in the networking and IT infrastructure realm, spanning servers, storage, consulting, routing, switching, and safety. As with just about every mega offer today, a big motivation behind the merger was — in company parlance — to “accelerate AI-driven innovation,” specified the essential function that cloud infrastructure performs in the burgeoning AI motion.

At the time, HPE stated it would spend $40 a share, representing a 32% high quality around the most the latest closing selling price — amounting to a overall value of $14 billion. A deal of this magnitude was constantly most likely to catch the attention of regulatory scrutiny, and the U.K. is the initial jurisdiction to show its hand, however it is possible the European Commission will at least choose a seem at the deal, although the Federal Trade Fee (FTC) in the U.S. could likely elevate issues.

Adobe final yr was pressured to pull the plug on its $20 billion bid for Figma following pushback the two in the EU and the U.K.

For now, the CMA is inviting reviews from appropriate stakeholders, with a deadline established for July 3. The CMA will then have right up until August 14 to make a decision no matter if to development the investigation to a formal “phase 2” inquiry.