The Competition Tribunal of South Africa has approved the Microsoft – Activision deal, unconditionally.
Klobrille revealed the news on Twitter. The regulator shared this message on their website:
“The Competition Tribunal (“Tribunal”) has unconditionally approved the proposed merger, which is a global transaction, whereby Anchorage Merger Sub Inc. (“Anchorage”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) intends to acquire Activision Blizzard, Inc. (“Activision”).
The Tribunal’s reasons for its decision will be issued in due course.
The acquiring group (Anchorage, Microsoft and all firms controlled by Microsoft), through Microsoft, is a global technology company that provides information technology (“IT”) related services. Its gaming activities are relevant to this proposed merger. These involve the development, publishing and distribution of games for personal computers, consoles and mobile devices through Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft also publishes games developed by other game developers. It offers Xbox gaming consoles and the Surface series of personal computers.
Activision develops games for computers, consoles and mobile devices and publishes them in most countries around the world. Activision’s most notable content is the Call of Duty series of games, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, a mobile game. As well as offering paid-for full-games, free-to-play games and in-game content, Activision offers a subscription service for players of the World of Warcraft franchise.”
Of course, that just adds to the dimensions of how in most parts of the world, the deal had been approved without much reservation.
The circumstances may truly be different in US and the UK, where there is both a big marketplace and money to be made in games, and also a large market for jobs in the video game industry. This does not mean that it would be correct for both countries to reject the deal, but it does mean the additional attention is warranted.
Now, the situation as it stands is that most of the world is up for this deal, and that includes many parts of the world that will not be affected by any cloud gaming deals. They will not benefit or be harmed simply because there’s no infrastructure in those countries to support cloud gaming, and Microsoft would be hard pressed to bring their services to them. The benefit they get is for those consumers in those countries that do have game consoles and PCs. For some of those regions, it may be relegated to the rich, but it’s still a service that those gamers can enjoy, and could employ developers there too.
On general principle, the US and UK would be imposing themselves to all these other countries and regions if they continue to get in the way of the deal. It would be better for everyone involved to get that consensus on approving the deal, and regulating in instances where it is necessary.
