U.S. Approves ASML Purchase of Rival

ASM Lithography Holding won U.S. government approval for its $1.2-billion purchase of rival Silicon Valley Group Inc. after agreeing to try to sell a unit that made parts used in U.S. spy satellites.

ASML, based in the Netherlands, will make a “good-faith effort” to sell Tinsley Laboratories, a unit of Silicon Valley Group, the Dutch company said. The purchase of the San Jose-based company was delayed pending a probe into whether it would compromise U.S. intelligence secrets. The purchase, which will make ASML the biggest producer of machines that print circuits on computer chips, may close the week of May 21.

In the next six months ASML, as part of an agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviewed the purchase, will try to sell Tinsley to a U.S. company. The committee aims to ensure that sophisticated technology and weaponry don’t fall into the wrong hands.