The computer company has announced that it will purchase the color-printing division of a rival company for $950 million, which is part of a deal that will make it the largest manufacturer in the office color-printing market.
A) million, which is part of a deal that will make
B) million, a part of a deal that makes
C) million, part of a deal making
D) million as a part of a deal to make
E) million as part of a deal that will make

What does "as part of" modify? The entire preceding clause?

Thanks in advance.

yes.

if you wanted to modify just the preceding noun, you'd use the following type of structure:

three days ago he received a payment for $1000, part of the long-overdue pension that had been delayed for various bureaucratic reasons.

Hello,

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I thought it was a suitable location for my question.

What is the difference between "a part of" and "part of"?

(In this case Answer B vs. Answer C and Answer D vs. Answer E)

Thanks.

hmm... that's a good one.

first off, the most important observation you could make: both can be used correctly. neither one is straight-out wrong.

i'm not sure whether there's a clear distinction in their usage - you could try googling; i searched for a few minutes without finding anything definitive - but i came up with the following after taking a bit of mental inventory:
i'd use part of for things that are more abstract in nature, and/or where the divisions between the "parts" aren't quite as clear (confidence, in addition to skill, is part of what's necessary for success in this game), and a part of for clear, literal distinctions in which the parts can be neatly partitioned off (the arm is a part of the human body).
still, that's just what i came up with on the spot, and i wouldn't be surprised if the gmat's official line on the matter differed somewhat from mine.

What is the OA of the question?

The OA is E

Ron, could you please explain why D is wrong ("to make" vs "that will make")?

Thank you very much!

if you use the infinitive "to make", then the computer company is still the subject of the sentence. therefore, in this case you have to use the reflexive pronoun: itself. as an analogy, i can't look at me in the mirror, but i can look at myself in the mirror. same deal.

in choice (e), "...that will make..." shifts the role of subject to deal, so a reflexive pronoun is no longer needed. in fact, the reflexive pronoun would be absurd in this case, since a deal obviously can't make itself the largest manufacturer in the market.

Ron, could you explain why B,C is wrong? Why can't we think them as "final clause"?

when you have noun modifiers like these - called appositives, if you happen to care about terminology - they must tag the immediately preceding noun (in the same manner as would a modifier with a comma followed by "which", for example).
see here.

according to this rule, then, choices (b) and (c) both declare that the actual amount of $950 million is "(a) part of a deal..."
that's incorrect; it's the purchase / acquisition of the rival company's color printing division that's part of the deal. therefore, this is a misplaced modifier.