Six months after it started its “in-depth investigation“, it would appear that the EU Commission is set to approve the Microsoft – Activision Blizzard deal.
This news comes courtesy of Reuters' sources who are familiar with the situation. According to them, “EU antitrust regulators are set to approve Microsoft Corp's $69 billion acquisition of Activision”. It appears that this approval stemmed from Microsoft offering deals to its cloud streaming rivals. This includes Nvidia, Ukraine's Boosteroid, and Japan's Ubitus.
This news of approval comes as a big surprise, as back in January sources were saying that the EU would issue an antitrust warning to Microsoft instead. This most likely meant that between then and now, Microsoft was able to show the EU Commission that it didn't need to worry about Microsoft hindering competition. This is the exact opposite of the UK's decision to block the deal over its fears of Microsoft dominating the cloud gaming market.
The sources mentioned that the EU Commission will most likely announce its decision around May 15, 2023, with May 22, 2023, as its absolute deadline. When asked by Reuters for a comment, the Commission declined to comment.
The $69 billion deal is the biggest in gaming history. The deal, which started back in January 2022, is more than five times the amount Take-Two spent in acquiring Zynga ($13B), and more than seven times the amount Tencent used to buy Super Cell ($9B). Sony has been very much against the deal since the beginning, as they were worried that this deal would prevent games like Call of Duty from coming to PlayStation. Even after Microsoft assured Sony that it would still get Call of Duty games time and time again, as well as offer them ten-year deals. Sony did not accept said deals.
Outside of Sony, Microsoft has also made a ten-year deal with Nintendo, as well as Steam. Gabe Newell did not deem the deal necessary, as he trusted Microsoft.
That's all the information we have so far about the EU Commission's supposed upcoming approval of the Microsoft – Activision Blizzard deal. Check out our gaming news articles for the latest in gaming news.
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