The purchase transaction Activision Blizzard by Microsoft got very complicated two weeks ago, when the CMA (UK Markets and Competition Authority) blocked the deal.
It has been over a year since Microsoft announced its intention to merge all of Activision Blizzard within the Xbox group, but the deal is far from finalized due to opposition from some market regulatory bodies, especially the United Kingdom and the United States. Joined.
The European CommissionHowever, he will approve it. Or so the analysts hope: we could know the decision next week, on May 15, they say from Reuters.
The final decision of the European Commission on Microsoft and Activision will be known on May 22
According to Reuters, the “Yes” of the European Commission could be given on May 15, although the deadline for them to make a decision is May 22.
Reuters refers to “people close to the matter” when it says that Europe’s regulators they are about to approve the purchaseof almost 69,000 million dollars, one of the largest transactions in the technology industry.
Microsoft would have convinced the market regulators in Brussels by denying the possible negative consequences for the competition in the video game market that this agreement would entail, which would make Xbox control franchises like Call of Duty, Warcraft, Diablo or Overwatch (and more than a dozen studios with thousands of workers).
Microsoft has spent months signing agreements with other companies that offer streaming game servicesuch as Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus or the Spanish company Nware.
Microsoft It has also signed with its competitors in the world of consoles (Nintendo) and PC (Valve) to ensure that, for 10 years, they will bring all Call of Duty games to those platforms, without exclusivities of any kind. Sony has refused to sign the agreement.
We will see if the forecasts are finally fulfilled and Europe approves Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, lightening Microsoft’s penalties a bit and giving them a moral ally in their legal battle that they are going to wage in the United Kingdom and the United States. They have already hired an expert lawyer…
