Microsoft announced its intention to buy Activision early last year. So far, however, the entire transaction has not been completed, as it awaited the blessing of regulators in individual markets.
The American software giant made a number of concessions because of this. He concluded license agreements for the provision of games with other companies – for example, with Nvidia, the Ukrainian company Boosteroid or the Japanese company Ubitus.
Microsoft is making concessions to complete its biggest gaming deal
Latest concessions
Thanks to them, he received the blessing of the European Commission (EC) in May of this year and subsequently from the regulator in the USA in July. The last body that is waiting for is the CMA. But the British Antimonopoly Authority already he indicated in the second half of Septemberthat the latest concessions “open the door to approval of the deal.”
As part of the concessions, Activision Blizzard is expected to sell its streaming rights outside of Europe to rival Ubisoft Entertainment. The rights should apply to all existing and future games released over the next 15 years, both in versions for classic computers and game consoles.
“Compared to the original agreement, Microsoft will not gain control over the cloud rights to Activision Blizzard’s game products in this case. In practice, Microsoft will therefore not be able to restrict the market by offering games only within its cloud gaming service or by denying individual titles to competitors,” the CMA said in a statement.
The British regulator is expected to comment later this week. If the CMA gives the green light to the deal, Microsoft is ready to complete the acquisition immediately, by The Verge managed to find out that the finalization of the trade is currently scheduled for Friday, October 13.
Only the CMA’s disapproving attitude can probably ruin these plans.
A number of popular games
If the US software giant is eventually given the go-ahead by the regulator, it will be the biggest buyout of all time in the history of video games. After the successful completion of the entire deal, Microsoft would turn into the third largest game company in the world, at least in terms of revenue. It would thus rank closely behind Tencent and Sony.
Microsoft would become the owner of a number of famous names in the gaming world – to mention at least Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot and StarCraft.
Upoutávka na hru Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold WarVideo: Activision/Treyarch, Raven Software, Beenox
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2023-10-09 08:21:23
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