The suspense surrounding the most publicized acquisition in our industry will continue for a while. This week, the conflict between the FTC (the US regulator) and Microsoft aboutActivision-Blizzard has officially launched while the European and British authorities are still trying to find out whether or not to oppose this acquisition. A few days ago, the CMA (regulator in the United Kingdom) published a report on the public’s opinion of this takeover, showing that the majority of consumers were in favor of this merger. Despite this, the British organization will take more time to act on its decision, as relayed by GamesIndustry.biz.
The investigation continues
Prior to today, the CMA had pledged to release its final report on this case by March 1, but plans have changed as this deadline is now set for April 26.
A hell of a delay that can be explained for a lot of reasons, such as a need to investigate more in depth the impacts of such a takeover on the market, or simply to see how the FTC will try to put sticks in the wheels of Microsoft. Nothing says that the CMA will follow the direction of the wind, but one can imagine that the British regulator is cautious by first watching the FTC act. Officially, the CMA simply states that it needs to expand its investigation:
” In reaching this decision, the investigation panel took into account the scope and complexity of the investigation and the need to consider a great deal of evidence as well as submissions from the main parties and third parties, but also of the need to allow sufficient time to fully and duly take into account the comments that will be received in response to the provisional conclusions of the investigation group, in order to reach a final decision within the legal deadline. »
Nor does it mean that the CMA’s decision will be known on April 26 and not before. It could very well be that a preliminary opinion will be made public well before that, but it is still difficult to predict.