People familiar with the matter said on Monday that the US chip design software company Synopsys's deal to acquire ANSYS for 35 billion dollars will receive conditional antitrust approval from the European Union. This is the biggest technology merger and acquisition deal since Broadcom (AVGO.O) bought software manufacturer Verizon for $69 billion a year ago. It is also the first major technology merger and acquisition since Ribera, the EU's new antitrust chief, took office. Other sources said that in order to allay EU concerns about competition, Synopsys proposed selling its optical design tool manufacturer Optical Solutions Group and Ansys PowerArtist this month. The European Commission plans to end its preliminary review of the deal on January 10.