Microsoft’s battle to acquire Activision Blizzard has not been smooth. The company made massive headlines when unveiled its bid to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. While we have been viewing this deal closely over the past several months, it seems that two regulators are proving troublesome. We know that Microsoft must deal with the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK antitrust regulators CMA to proceed.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Microsoft. Several regulators have given the green light on acquiring this company. Included recently was a big regulator with the EU giving their seal of approval. But now we can add another regulator to the mix. It looks like Microsoft will receive approval from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation. We’re just learning of the regulator approval thanks to a report by Seeking Alpha.
This is just another positive outlook for Microsoft as it means one less appeal battle to deal with to proceed with their purchase. However, it looks like the big hurdle Microsoft will have to get over is the appeal for the CMA. As a result, both Microsoft and Activision have hired heavy-hitting lawyers to deal with the appeal. This appeal would allow the acquisition deal to land on the CMA again for review.
If you didn’t catch the reasoning behind the CMA’s decision to block the deal, it was due to the fact that there were concerns over cloud gaming. While initially, there were concerns that Call of Duty would become an exclusive under Microsoft’s line of console platforms and PC, that was quickly dismissed. Microsoft was then viewed as being problematic when it came to an even playing field for cloud gaming if they acquired Activision Blizzard. To rectify this, Microsoft has signed decade-long deals with several cloud gaming providers to ensure Microsoft’s Xbox titles land on their services.
Competitor Nvidia GeForce Now was included, which recently just received its first Xbox-exclusive title on the platform with Gears 5. Of course, we know that more of the Xbox line of video game titles will be released on the platform. So seeing these deals being made and cloud gaming providers also gaining access to Microsoft’s exclusive first-party titles might persuade the CMA to allow the deal to proceed. Still, we have a long ways to go before the appeals are settled, and the CMA is reviewing the acquisition once again.
