UK regulator to investigate Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard

The Competitions and Markets authority in the UK is having a look at the proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, which at $68.7 billion would be the biggest deal in the history of gaming.The Competition and Markets authority in the UK is having a look at the proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, which at $68.7 billion would be the biggest deal in the history of gaming. If it goes through the acquisition would bring huge gaming franchises from the Activision, Blizzard and King studios including Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush, under Microsoft’s umbrella. The purchase is for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, inclusive of Activision Blizzard’s net cash, and is the largest deal the gaming sector has seen. The CMA is classifying the move as a merger and is inviting comments from any interested party as part of its investigation. It says in a statement: “The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is considering whether it is or may be the case that this transaction, if carried into effect, will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 and, if so, whether the creation of that situation may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.” Activision Blizzard is itself already a conglomerate of the two titular companies and King, the mobile gaming giant behind Candy Crush – represents a huge amount of IP, development and publishing firepower.  As well as some potential fodder for whatever Microsoft ends up doing with the metaverse, an interesting upshot of the deal might be that it gives Microsoft Game Pass – its subscription based gaming platform which operates almost as a Netflix for games in that you can play them while you have an active account – a shot in the arm. Games Pass is popular but the list of games isn’t exactly exhaustive, compared to something like Steam. But it could be a different story if it starts getting pumped up with a new influx of Activision Blizzard titles. Since Microsoft could at that point make these titles exclusive, it would seem this could be a likely flashpoint with regards to whether the whole deal is anti-competitive or not.   Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Register for the Telecoms.com newsletter here. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Do you agree public funding should be used to support mobile operators to more broadly deploy Open RAN? Using digital to power up in the fight against climate change. To tackle climate change, there is only one real sol hhttps://t.co/fKqRFcMpYO 06 July 2022 @ 16:12:05 UTC Is your company already showing leadership in addressing the impacts of climate change? Then drive this agenda with hhttps://t.co/yTAbJgXXjT 06 July 2022 @ 13:15:02 UTC Groundhog Day as yet another European connected car club emerges. This one is called Punxsutawney Phil, and if it s hhttps://t.co/qbUe39TOzL 06 July 2022 @ 12:12:07 UTC