diff --git a/src/Composer/Package/Version/VersionParser.php b/src/Composer/Package/Version/VersionParser.php
index 65791848b..54d7f09c0 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Package/Version/VersionParser.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Package/Version/VersionParser.php
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 namespace Composer\Package\Version;
 
+use Composer\Repository\PlatformRepository;
 use Composer\Semver\VersionParser as SemverVersionParser;
 
 class VersionParser extends SemverVersionParser
@@ -47,7 +48,7 @@ class VersionParser extends SemverVersionParser
 
         for ($i = 0, $count = count($pairs); $i < $count; $i++) {
             $pair = preg_replace('{^([^=: ]+)[=: ](.*)$}', '$1 $2', trim($pairs[$i]));
-            if (false === strpos($pair, ' ') && isset($pairs[$i + 1]) && false === strpos($pairs[$i + 1], '/')) {
+            if (false === strpos($pair, ' ') && isset($pairs[$i + 1]) && false === strpos($pairs[$i + 1], '/') && !preg_match(PlatformRepository::PLATFORM_PACKAGE_REGEX, $pairs[$i + 1])) {
                 $pair .= ' '.$pairs[$i + 1];
                 $i++;
             }
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4ae2e2a25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Package/Version/VersionParserTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * This file is part of Composer.
+ *
+ * (c) Nils Adermann <naderman@naderman.de>
+ *     Jordi Boggiano <j.boggiano@seld.be>
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
+ * file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace Composer\Test\Package\Version;
+
+use Composer\Package\Version\VersionParser;
+
+class VersionParserTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
+{
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider getParseNameVersionPairsData
+     */
+    public function testParseNameVersionPairs($pairs, $result)
+    {
+        $versionParser = new VersionParser();
+
+        $this->assertSame($result, $versionParser->parseNameVersionPairs($pairs));
+    }
+
+    public function getParseNameVersionPairsData()
+    {
+        return array(
+            array(array('php:^7.0'), array(array('name' => 'php', 'version' => '^7.0'))),
+            array(array('php', '^7.0'), array(array('name' => 'php', 'version' => '^7.0'))),
+            array(array('php', 'ext-apcu'), array(array('name' => 'php'), array('name' => 'ext-apcu'))),
+        );
+    }
+}