News | Activision Blizzard Acquisition Preliminarily Approved by CMA

The British agency says that Microsoft’s new proposal has largely resolved its concerns, although there are still some minor points that need to be negotiated. The earlier announcement that Ubisoft, not Microsoft, will receive the right to release Activision Blizzard games on cloud services was a decisive factor for this preliminary approval.

The Competition and Markets Authority disapproved of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard earlier this year – as did the US Federal Trade Commission. However, last July the FTC lost the lawsuit against Microsoft to block the takeover, after which the CMA indicated that it wanted to sit down with Microsoft again. Shortly afterwards, a new deadline of October 18 for CMA’s ruling was set, but a preliminary ruling has now already been issued. The final decision must therefore be made no later than October 18.

Microsoft is willing to pay approximately $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard. In addition to Call of Duty, Activision Blizzard also owns franchises such as World of Warcraft, Diablo and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. King is also part of the company, a developer of mobile hits such as Candy Crush.