Late last month, the CMA provisionally approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Today, the UK regulator has published its final report and cleared the deal for closing. This came after Microsoft restructured its acquisition by agreeing to sell Activision’s cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft, after the original deal was blocked by the CMA back in April.
In its original investigation, the CMA found Microsoft already held a strong position in relation to cloud gaming and blocked the deal.
The sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft will prevent the distribution of important, popular content – including games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft – from coming under the control of Microsoft in relation to cloud gaming. The restructured deal substantially addressed the concerns that the CMA had following its original investigation, which concluded earlier this year.
The CMA did identify limited residual concerns with the new deal, but Microsoft gave undertakings that will ensure that the terms of the sale of Activision’s rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA.
The CMA consulted on these undertakings and is satisfied that this will provide the safety net needed to make sure this deal is properly implemented.
According to a new report, Microsoft’s modified transaction won’t require another round of approval from the EU regulators, and with no FTC injunction in place, Microsoft is finally free to close its acquisition after 20 months of scrutiny.
Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA said:
The CMA is resolute in its determination to prevent mergers that harm competition and deliver bad outcomes for consumers and businesses. We take our decisions free from political influence and we won’t be swayed by corporate lobbying.
We delivered a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and stuck to our guns on that.
Since Activision’s stock was put on hold at NASDAQ earlier today, it seems like Microsoft is planning on finalizing the deal today, as reported last week. The Microsoft Activision saga has finally come to an end, and it will be interesting to see how this acquisition pans out in the future.
Source: CMA