The CMA provisionally approves Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition
Summary
While the UKs Competition & Markets Authority initially chose to block Microsofts acquisition of Activision Blizzard, things have changed in recent months. Both parties paused appeal proceedings to evaluate a new version of the merger, in which Activisions cloud gaming rights would be sold off to Ubisoft. On Friday, the CMA announced that it has provisionally approved Microsofts new Activision Blizzard King merger proposal. At that point, Microsoft will be free to close the deal, despite the fact that the FTC is still attempting to fight the merger over in the US courts. However, given how complicated this acquisition has been, I wouldnt expect Microsoft to target any more major publishers for quite some time, certainly not Nintendo or Valve, as those purchases would start to raise serious anti-trust concerns.
