Microsoft and Activision: green light for acquisition from the EU, without further investigations

Based on what Bloomberg reported in the last minutes, it appears that… European Commission Announce Unwillingness to proceed with any further investigation On theMicrosoft’s acquisition of Activision BlizzardWhich basically confirms the previous position and gives the green light for the operation.

Activision Blizzard’s acquisition process is actually different: The proposal has been “restructured”. By Microsoft in order to accommodate the objections raised by the UK Financial Markets Authority, to effectively modify some aspects of the process, and above all to mitigate the monopoly risks that have emerged in the cloud gaming sector, in accordance with the requests of the UK Antitrust Authority.

After this the changesthe European Union reviewed the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but apparently found no reason to launch a new additional investigation, confirming the position expressed previously.

Restructured purchase proposal

Among the largest Privileges What Microsoft has done in the face of the CMA’s complaints is to transfer the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft, which should eliminate the monopoly risk that the CMA fears.

The latter said that she was largely satisfied with the new proposal, but was still waiting for it Final response from the UK, which should arrive by October 18. However, it is possible that this response will arrive sooner, considering that according to various testimonies, Microsoft appears to intend to finalize the acquisition as early as this week, perhaps by Friday, October 13, 2023.