Activision Blizzard, a video game company, is being pursued acquisition by Microsoft for $68.7 billion, marking the largest deal in the gaming industry’s history. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which investigates mergers and acquisitions to ensure they do not harm competition, is anticipated to approve the deal on April 26th, Wednesday.
The CMA initially expressed competition worries in September 2022 and subsequently launched a more in-depth investigation. However, the CMA withdrew its apprehensions regarding the console market last month after realizing that removing Call of Duty from PlayStation platforms would severely impact Microsoft.
Although Microsoft has clinched four ten-year agreements to transfer all its games to cloud gaming services, including those of Activision Blizzard, if the deal is approved, apprehensions over the cloud market persist.
According to a recent report in The Financial Times ↗, Microsoft’s chances of obtaining approval for the acquisition have been enhanced. The report suggests that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will support the deal. The European Union is also expected to issue its verdict shortly, but prior rumors indicated that they would approve the deal.
If the UK and the European Union approved the acquisition, the only remaining obstacle for Microsoft would be the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, which filed a lawsuit to prevent the deal in December. An evidentiary hearing is anticipated in August. However, with approvals from other countries, including Japan, South Africa, Chile, Brazil, Serbia, and Saudi Arabia, the FTC may reevaluate engaging in a protracted court battle that it might lose.
