2023-09-22 09:29:42
During a video game convention in Los Angeles, June 13, 2017. FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP
The British competition authority, the CMA, announced on Friday September 22 that it was giving provisional authorization to the new agreement for the purchase by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard, publisher of the video game Call of Duty. The CMA reported in a press release “limited residual concerns” on this merger, for which Microsoft “proposed solutions”. The competition watchdog concludes “tentatively these additional protections should resolve remaining concerns”. He also announced that he had opened a consultation until October 6 on the changes proposed by the American software giant.
This $69 billion “megapurchase” is part of Microsoft’s very expensive bet to strengthen itself in the gaming, and help its successful Xbox console compete with Sony’s PlayStation. Microsoft vice-president Brad Smith reacted on Friday on the social network “encouraged by these positive developments in the CMA review process”, the authorization of the latter constituting the last obstacle blocking the acquisition.
Microsoft submitted an amended version of its proposed takeover of the American video game publisher a month ago, hoping for approval from the British authority following a refusal at the end of April. Indeed, the CMA had blocked Microsoft’s plans earlier in the year, fearing that the operation would reduce too much competition in the dematerialized games market, and had opened a preliminary investigation in the process. In the new version of the project, the software company planned, among other things, notable transfers of Activision Blizzard’s online gaming rights, including the global successes Call of Duty et Candy Crushwhich will be sold to the French Ubisoft.
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