Europe’s approval of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal provides a glimmer of hope to the tech giant since it has faced strong opposition from US and UK regulators|Kjeff|CC BY-SA 4.0
In a landmark decision, European Union regulators approved Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard, less than a month after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked it.
The European Commission says, “Even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision’s games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market.”
It does however agree that acquisition could harm competition around cloud gaming sales.
Hope for Microsoft
Europe’s approval of the deal provides a glimmer of hope to Microsoft as it faces strong opposition from US and UK regulators. Countries that approved the megadeal are Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, Serbia, Japan, and South Africa.
China, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia are reviewing it. Back home, the FTC has sued to block it.
The Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal aims to bring together the Xbox-maker with the video game developer, whose hit titles include World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Candy Crush Saga and Overwatch.