The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shared a provisional opinion much more favorable to the takeover than before.
If it still has reservations for this historic operation to the tune of 69 billion dollars, it could however, with some effort on the part of Microsoft, that the authority grants its unconditional green light. This would be a significant leap forward for the Redmond firm in achieving its ultimate goal.
Plot twist UK
On its way to adding Activision Blizzard to its fold, Microsoft faced three big bosses in the person of the American (FTC), British and European competition authorities. We learned recently that the European Commission would, for its part, be ready to agree to the takeover without conditions.
It is now the turn of the CMA, yet known to be particularly intransigent, to concede ground. The latter has indeed split today an update concerning its investigation into the operation, cited in source below. In it, the authority reviews its copy and considers that ” Microsoft’s expected acquisition of Activision Blizzard will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in the UK console market “.
However, the CMA continues to have reservations about the impact of this takeover on the cloud gaming market. However, Microsoft has made several agreements to ensure that such a consideration is out of the question. The American giant has indeed appealed to GeForce Now, Ubitus or even Boosteroid in this direction.
The FTC as the last bastion of resistance?
If such agreements are enough to dispel the doubts of the British authority, Microsoft will thus have won over to its cause two of its last three opponents. The CMA is due to deliver its verdict on April 26, and the European Commission should soon do the same.
So there would only be one ultimate boss left in front of Microsoft: the FTC. It is still deeply immersed in its investigation and the study of documents provided by Microsoft. With this in mind, the authority could implicate Sony and force it to reveal how much it pays for its PlayStation exclusives.
Recall that Microsoft applied another strategy to soften its detractors like the FTC by signing a ten-year agreement for the license call of duty is also available on Nintendo Switch. The same thing was also proposed to Sony, which did not see it very favorably.
Anyway, the soap opera around the takeover of Activision Blizzard seems more than ever to approach a conclusion favorable to Microsoft. It remains to be seen how many episodes (seasons?) we have left to discover before the final verdict. Recall that the Redmond firm expects the operation to be finalized by next June.
Source : Gov.uk
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