Tokyo, Japan 12/10/12; Tokyo Japan 12/12/12; Tokyo, Japan 12/12/12—Hitachi High-Technologies and SII NanoTechnology, a unit of Seiko Instruments, have announced that the companies’ merger will proceed (see IBO 5/31/12, 8/15/12). The acquisition is expected to be completed by January 1, 2013. The announcement follows the decision by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) that the deal would not “substantially restrain competition in any particular fields of trade.” The JFTC specifically noted that competition would not be restrained for scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), focused ion beam systems (FIBs) and FIB-SEMs. The companies are expected to finalize a definitive agreement on December 26.