Microsoft received permission to buy Blizzard Activision for $69 billion – Kommersant

Today, 13 October, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has finalized approved Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. Thus, the last obstacle to closing the deal, estimated at $69 billion, has been removed. As follows from the regulator’s statement, he was satisfied with the final version of the deal, according to which Microsoft will not own the rights to Activision Blizzard’s cloud games, but will sell them to a third party.

“(New terms of the deal.— “Kommersant”) will not allow Microsoft to restrict competition in cloud gaming at a time when this market is just gaining momentum, and will maintain competitive prices and services for British consumers,” the board said in a statement.

Microsoft agreed about the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in January 2022. This deal raised many questions among regulators – primarily they were concerned about the availability of Activision games to Microsoft’s competitors, primarily in the market for streaming game services. In particular, the US Federal Trade Commission opposed the deal. True, later the American court allowed deal, refusing to support the regulator’s demand. The European Commission has also already approved deal – she was satisfied with Microsoft’s proposal to enter into licensing agreements for Activision games with other gaming services.

As a result, the British regulator turned out to be the only obstacle to the deal. In April he blocked deal. Since then, Microsoft has tried to change its terms to remove the CMA’s claims. The current version was worked out in August, and at the end of September the regulator gave preliminary consent to the transaction.

Microsoft President Brad Smith responded to the CMA’s decision in his post on X (formerly Twitter), expressing “gratitude for the thoroughness of the review and the… decision made.”

What will the purchase of Activision Blizzard give the corporation? Kommersant-FM material.

Andrey Kelekeev