Bloomberg News reports that the UK competition watchdog has approved Activision Blizzard Inc.’s acquisition by Microsoft Corp for $69 billion. It has managed to do away with the ultimate major global regulatory obstacle, which posed the biggest hurdle in completing the biggest-ever deal in gaming.
More about the deal
The Competition and Markets Authority revealed Friday the restructured offer of Microsoft to sell gaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment, the French publisher, was found satisfactory about any concerns related to competition it had. The agency also said it would aim to preserve the competitive costs and offer improved services.
Why didn’t the deal happen before?
The deal was on halt for several months. The main reason is that it ran up against concerns from antitrust regulators across the globe, which also included a veto in the initial stages from the United Kingdom. However, Microsoft gained unanticipated momentum after successfully beating the Federal Trade Commission’s court related to the deal.
The European Union, on the other hand, was found to have cleared the deal in May with behavioral remedies. It had kept the CMA as an obstruction as one of the regulators fulfilling the deal. Sarah Cardell, the chief executive officer associated with CMA, said that they had already made it very clear to Microsoft that the deal would not be taking place and would be blocked unless they successfully addressed the concerns. As such, the regulator kept its condition.
Resubmission by Microsoft
By the time it was summer, Microsoft had resubmitted a different deal substantially to CMA. It was one final push in the deal. It would include the title Call of Duty, the blockbuster title.
Bloomberg News reports that both Activision and Microsoft agreed to extend the deal until October 18th.
What happens following the finalization of the deal?
Once the deal gets finalized, Microsoft will be responsible for keeping tabs on some of the franchises, including Candy Crush, Diablo, and Call of Duty. In the last few years, Microsoft has bought game companies to bring well-known games to the Xbox consoles, Windows PCs, Game Pass, and game subscriptions ecosystem. Microsoft occupies the third position in Console Company, just following on close heels after Nintendo and Sony.
Microsoft is making inroads into the gaming market
According to some Microsoft executives, this move of the tech giant is a way of making inroads into the mobile gaming market, which is worth $93 billion. However, instead, the UK regulators fixated on the potential of Microsoft to dominate the new cloud-based gaming market.
With the help of the games of Activision, Microsoft could bring in more customers into the territory of gaming service, which is an essential feature of Game Pass.
