Microsoft will finish buying Activision Blizzard next week, claims report
Microsoft is allegedly aiming to finalise its acquisition of Activision Blizzard by October 13 as long as it receives a positive response from the Competition and Markets Authority.
In its report, The Verge‘s source said that Microsoft would like to announce that the acquisition has been formally approved by all commerce bodies by October 13, apparently.
But, the Competition and Markets Authority, the United Kingdom’s competition regulator, is currently taking stock of the general sentiment from major and minor players in the industry on whether or not Microsoft should be allowed to acquire Activision Blizzard.
The Competition and Markets Authority has been one of the toughest actors to convince in Microsoft’s efforts.
In February, it asked that Activision divest Call Of Duty for the acquisition to be approved, but changed its stance when Microsoft said that the series would still stay on multiple platforms for ten years.
Then, in April, the regulator ruled against the acquisition and cited Microsoft’s present strength in the cloud gaming sector which would only be augmented with Activision Blizzard in its portfolio.
It also prevented Microsoft from attempting to acquire Activision Blizzard without allowing the Competition and Markets Authority to grant pre-clearance ahead of time.
Yet, the approval of the European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission’s defeat in July caused the Competition and Markets Authority to briefly postpone their legal back-and-forth.
Based on a new proposal that would sell the streaming rights of all current and future Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft for Ubisoft+, the regulator said that it would review this version of the acquisition and come to a conclusion before October 18.
In other gaming news, Telltale Games has allegedly lost “most of” its developers in layoffs last month, becoming the latest company to share news of downsizing.
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Imogen Donovan
NME
