Microsoft ahead of tremendous success: UK should allow Activision deal

In the past few weeks, things have been a little quieter again about the approval battle in the context of Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard, but this week the Redmond-based company is likely to take a huge step towards completing the deal.

At the beginning of 2022, Microsoft announced that it would buy, or rather want to buy, the game publisher Activision Blizzard. Because the almost 69 billion dollar business must be approved by various authorities. Numerous countries have already done this, but the big three in the west (the EU, the USA and Great Britain) took a closer look – and had their doubts as to whether Microsoft should be allowed to do this just like that.

The business seemed to burst

For a long time things didn’t look good for Microsoft either. This was mainly due to the fact that Sony was lobbying massively to prevent the deal. But little by little Microsoft was able to dispel the concerns and received more positive signals from the individual competition authorities.

The European, US and British competition authorities have not yet pronounced a verdict, but the first OK should follow this week. Because the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will publish its judgment and its final report. According to the Financial Times (FT) that will be the case on Wednesday and according to the well-respected business newspaper it is likely that this will end in a positive way for Microsoft. That wouldn’t be too surprising, since the CMA has previously stated that it no longer sees Call of Duty as crucial and doesn’t expect the Redmond company to make the shooter Xbox-exclusive if it decides to acquire Activision Blizzard – for monetary reasons. Because Microsoft can simply earn more if you continue to offer Call of Duty for the PlayStation, according to the assessment of the CMA.

See also:

Microsoft, Gaming, Games, Takeover, Activision Blizzard, Competition Law, Uk, Antitrust Law, Takeover Battle, Competition Authority, Antitrust Authority, CMA, Competition and Markets Authority