Chinese regulators reportedly have approved the Dell’s $67 billion acquisition of EMC Corp., removing the last hurdle to what will be information technology’s largest acquisition ever.

China blessed the deal this week, according to a report in the New York Post. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and European authorities gave its thumbs-up back in February. Last month EMC shareholders approved the deal.

The combination of the Round Rock, TX-based maker of personal computers and servers, founded by Michael S. Dell (pictured above), and data storage systems and software maker EMC would create the largest seller of IT equipment and software. In particular, the combined company would be able to offer the “converged infrastructure” of computing, storage and networking that customers increasingly are demanding — a trend that no doubt forced EMC into Dell’s arms.

“The Dell EMC deal marks a new era in IT,” said longtime industry analyst David Vellante, chief research officer at market researcher Wikibon and co-chief executive of SiliconANGLE Media, publisher of SiliconANGLE. But it’s an era in which Dell, EMC, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Cisco Systems Inc. and other traditional IT vendors have struggled to contend with cheaper and more flexible open-source software and cloud computing services from the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

“It was inevitable as the pressure on margins will continue and EMC needed a partner to help it survive the carnage,” Vellante said. Even so, EMC and VMware Inc., which is publicly held but majority-owned by EMC, recently reported better-than-expected earnings.

The lengthy review by China suggests to some observers that authorities there are wary of what will likely be Dell’s greater power over a greater swath of technology markets. Although Dell had said the deal might not close until October, it’s clear that China’s authorities had concerns about the deal potentially providing more competition for Chinese companies such as Huawei and Lenovo and delayed it as long as possible.

“China wants to dominate every part of the technology stack, from chips to storage, network, the operating system, databases and other software,” Vellante said. China likely demanded concessions from Dell, possibly involving the organizational structure of its Chinese entities as well as investments in local Chinese suppliers, that would buy time for homegrown companies.

The completion of the deal is expected to be announced next week. The combined company will be called Dell Technologies. EMC also owns security subsidiary RSA, the cloud software firm Pivotal Software Inc., and the VCE converged systems venture, along with the stake in VMware.

Michael Dell spoke at EMC World in May with theCUBE, owned by the same company as SiliconANGLE*:

* Disclosure: TheCube was the paid media partner at EMC World. None of the show’s sponsors had editorial control over the content.