The three biggest obstacles to Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard have always been seen as competition authorities in the US, EU and UK. The latter were set to announce their decision this week, and it looked in advance as if Microsoft’s concessions had convinced them.
Now reporting though Bloomberg that a judgment has been made and they will block the deal. The CMA has concluded that the deal would harm competition in the cloud (it is not Call of Duty that is the problem). As Windows Central points out, this could ironically lead to several cloud platforms (including Nvidia’s Geforce Now) not getting Call of Duty, as this was a promise from Microsoft, something that no longer applies unless they own Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft themselves say that they “remain fully committed to this acquisition and will appeal”but this makes it highly unlikely that the deal will be completed this summer as previously planned and sometime in 2024 is more likely – if it even goes through.
