(BRUSSELS) - The EU's top regulator on Monday gave the green light to a proposed joint venture between the world's biggest computer chip maker Intel and French-Italian chip maker STMicroelectronics.

Last month Intel and STM announced the creation of the "Numonyx" joint venture, which will operate worldwide in the sale of so-called "flash memory," a type of memory which is widely used in data storage cards, mobile phones and other portable devices.

The new entity will bring together the key parts of each parent company. That would amount to 3.6 billion dollars according to last year's accounts.

The European Commission concluded in a statement "that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it."

STMicroelectronics is active in the semiconductor industry and offers a broad range of semiconductor products.

Intel offers microprocessors, chipsets, and other semiconductor components, as well as platform solutions for data processing and communications devices.

The Commission found that "strong competitors are present" for the products involved "and customers would be able to continue sourcing their needs from a sufficient number of alternative vendors."

The new company will be led by the head of Intel's flash memory department, Brian Harrison, and based in Switzerland.

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