The marathon 20-month Microsoft-Activision Blizzard acquisition may finally end on October 13th as Microsoft has decided to finalise the deal with the $68.7 billion acquisition of the gaming company.
The Verge first reported the news based on a source close to Microsoft. However, the deal and the date will depend on the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom, a regulatory body that previously thwarted Microsoft’s aspirations in this regard earlier this year.
Microsoft had to undertake a strategic restructuring of the acquisition by transferring the rights to cloud gaming for current and future Activision Blizzard titles to Ubisoft. Consequently, this manoeuvre earned Microsoft a green light from the Competition and Markets Authority, granted just last month.
Today marks the end of the deadline for CMA to collect public opinions regarding the proposed merger, and the anticipation is that a definitive verdict will be announced in the coming weeks. Barring any unforeseen eleventh-hour altercations, Microsoft could soon bring this transaction to its conclusion.
Microsoft announced to buy Activision Blizzard in January last year. However, the CMA blocked the deal in the UK, citing concerns related to cloud computing. Notably, the European Union approved the acquisition, albeit with significant concessions related to cloud technology extracted from Microsoft. These European regulatory challenges followed the initial legal action the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took in the United States last year.
In a lengthy battle during FTC v. Microsoft, the FTC’s efforts to secure a preliminary injunction against the acquisition were unsuccessful.
The FTC then filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with a decision expected in early December. Simultaneously, the FTC is preparing to revive its administrative case against Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard after 21 days of the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling.
If the court’s ruling came in FTC’s favour, then the future of this deal will be in jeopardy. However, Microsoft has already won against the FTC once, and the FTC will face an uphill task challenging Microsoft a second time.
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