The 1.5 year investigation between the FTC (US Federal Trade Commission) and Microsoft has finally come to an end. The FTC has approved Microsoft’s purchase of Activision-Blizzard for $69 billion. The UK had said it would close the investigation, but has now said it may reopen it.
UK may re-investigate Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard deal
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it has closed its investigation into the Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard deal. The CMA, which made the decision after receiving approval from the US, said it wanted to reach an out-of-court settlement with Microsoft.
The agency had previously blocked the deal over concerns about its impact on the cloud market. However, negotiations with Microsoft have reversed this situation. The company, which prompted the agency to reconsider, has not yet received a response.
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Officials said the CMA’s decision will be announced next week. If there is no agreement between Microsoft and the agency, a new investigation could be launched. This means that the acquisition will be postponed for another spring.
Microsoft, which is expected to benefit from the Activision acquisition, will have a wide range of intellectual property and game development resources. It will be able to integrate major game studios such as Blizzard Entertainment and Treyarch, as well as game franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush into its services such as Xbox Game Pass.
It is said that there will be an integration process of around 1 year after Microsoft pays $69 billion, the amount it agreed to pay for Activision. However, it has also been said that some steps will be taken in this process that will not disappoint the expectations of the players.
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