Microsoft is nearly there when it comes to acquiring Activision Blizzard. This news has been in the headlines for a while now as the company sought to purchase this company for a whopping $69 billion. That’s quite a heap of money, and with anything significant, a series of regulators are heavily looking into the purchase. Of course, we have seen Microsoft get the green light from several regulators worldwide. Likewise, they just came out of a victory in the court system against the FTC. But one regulator that was quick to shoot this deal down was the CMA.
Since the Microsoft company came out with a big win from the FTC, the CMA was looking to settle the matter. If you don’t recall, Microsoft had since begun the appeal to ensure they could get this deal again in front of the CMA. But now that the FTC lost against Microsoft, the CMA managed to get Microsoft to pause the appeal so they could discuss this purchase once again without the court system getting involved. This only just happened yesterday, and a statement provided by the CMA media officer Billy Proudlock told The Verge that the discussions are still in an early stage.
It’s noted that the CMA is prepared to engage with Microsoft to see how the transaction might be modified. Of course, Microsoft might not be keen on making any significant changes. After all, while the talks might be in that early stage for the CMA, the Microsoft company has been putting in plenty of work. For instance, Microsoft found that the CMA stuck down the deal to acquire Activision Blizzard due to fears of Microsoft gaining too much control in cloud gaming. Since then, Microsoft has started to strike up deals with other competitive cloud gaming providers to open up Microsoft’s line of video games. Microsoft might be hopeful this is enough to warrant approval from the CMA.
Of course, we had reported earlier that there was a new CNBC article suggesting Microsoft agreed to small divestiture. We’re not given any details as to what this might be, and it looks like Billy Proudlock already warned The Verge that a new merger investigation could come up. That’s if Microsoft chooses to restructure a deal with the CMA. So, for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what comes from the discussions between the CMA and Microsoft. Meanwhile, for Xbox Game Pass owners that are hopeful the next major Call of Duty game will be landing on the service immediately after this deal, you might want to practice some patience. We already know that new Call of Duty games won’t be released on Game Pass until 2025 if this deal goes through.
