UK antitrust regulator clears Microsoft's acquisition of Activision (updated)

Activision Blizzard

13/10/2023 07:06

(Adds detail and background)
       Oct 13 - Britain's antitrust regulator on Friday cleared
Microsoft's  MSFT.O  acquisition of "Call of Duty" maker
Activision Blizzard  ATVI.O  after the restructured deal
substantially addressed its earlier concerns.
    Activision had in August agreed to sell its streaming rights
to Ubisoft Entertainment  UBIP.PA , and Microsoft last month
offered remedies to ensure the terms of the sale were
enforceable by the regulator, soothing some residual concerns.
        "The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up
competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving
competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,"
the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a
statement.
    Microsoft announced the biggest gaming deal in history in
early 2022, but the $69 billion acquisition was blocked in April
by Britain's competition regulator, which was concerned the U.S.
computing giant would gain too much control of the nascent cloud
gaming market.

 (Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H
K)
 ((Yadarisa.Shabong@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9742735150;))