"The companies’ decision to abandon this merger preserves competition for semiconductor manufacturing equipment,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse in a statement released after the companies formally scrapped the merger.

"The proposed remedy would not have replaced the competition eliminated by the merger, particularly with respect to the development of equipment for next-generation semiconductors."

(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Lisa Lambert)

Stocks treated in this article : Applied Materials, Inc., Tokyo Electron Ltd