Activision Blizzard: Acquisition approved by Microsoft in Ukraine

Antimonopoly Committee, Antimonopoly Authority onUkrainehe have He agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard from MicrosoftWe believe that the maneuver will not negatively affect competition in the video game market.

Rather different talk with regard to the market cloudswhich the antitrust authority considers completely irrelevant to its decision, specifying that “Microsoft and Activision Blizzard do not carry out economic activities in the cloud gaming services sector in Ukraine, therefore, the concerns expressed by the European Commission and the reasons for the ban in Great Britain are not relevant to the assessment Impact of acquisition on competitive dynamics in Ukraine”.

Ukraine is currently the seventh country to approve Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, after Serbia, Brazil, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Chile and South Africa. Instead, it has been rejected by Britain’s Capital Markets Authority, the UK’s Antitrust Authority, and the US Federal Trade Commission that it will have to take on the Redmond giant in courtrooms this summer.

On May 22, 2023, we will have another important judgment, which is the judgment of European Commission, which will be fundamental in determining the outcome of the maneuver. In any case, given the times of American justice and the appeal to CAT by Microsoft against the CMA’s decision, even in the best-case scenario, the acquisition cannot be completed before 2024.