“Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard faces hurdles in Europe and UK Antitrust Authority”

Reuters agency it said approval of the transaction was expected to take place next week. The EC will probably issue a decision already on Monday.

Microsoft made a series of concessions to get regulators to clear the deal. For example, license agreements were concluded with competitors in the field of cloud gaming – for example, with Nvidia, the Ukrainian company Boosteroid or the Japanese company Ubitus.

The US software giant has also struck a deal with Nintendo that guarantees it will bring Call of Duty to the Japanese gaming giant’s gaming platforms if the acquisition goes through.

However, the American company Valve, which owns the world’s largest video game distribution platform Steam, refused to conclude an agreement with Microsoft. As a reason, company representatives stated that they “have confidence in Microsoft” even without unnecessary contracts.

Despite this, at the end of April, he already blocked the trillion-dollar deal UK Antitrust Authority (CMA). After months of analysis, officials said the deal could “change the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers in the coming years”.

“We are concerned that Microsoft could use its control over popular games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft to harm competition,” Sorcha O’Carroll, head of corporate mergers at the CMA, said earlier.

The US software giant said immediately after the CMA’s final report was published that it would appeal the decision. “We are definitely not giving up on the acquisition. We will appeal the decision,” said Microsoft vice chairman Brad Smith in a statement to The Verge.

“We’ve already signed deals to bring popular games from Activision Blizzard to an additional 150 million devices, and we remain committed to expanding those deals. We are disappointed that, after much consideration, this decision appears to reflect a misunderstanding of this market and how the relevant cloud technology actually works,” Smith stated.

The planned merger of the two companies is also being dealt with by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which immediately filed a lawsuit against it. Its aim is also to block the merger of the two companies.

Microsoft had planned to complete the acquisition during this financial year, which ends on June 30, 2023. It is not yet clear whether that date will be pushed back due to the investigation. But if the authorities eventually gave in to the American software giant, it would be the biggest purchase of all time in the history of video games.

Upon successful completion of the entire deal, Microsoft would turn into the third largest gaming 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.