The authorization of the British regulator allows the “last regulatory obstacle” to the merger to be overcome
MADRID, 13 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The American technology giant Microsoft confirmed this Friday that it “officially completed” the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, publisher of video game franchises such as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘World of Warcraft’ or ‘Candy Crush Saga’, after finally the Authority of Markets and Competition of the United Kingdom (CMA, for its acronym in English) has today given the green light to the operation, whose amount of around 69,000 million dollars (65,177 million euros) makes it the largest in the history of the sector.
“For the millions of fans who love Activision, Blizzard and King games, we want you to know that today is a good day to play,” said Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, after learning of the outcome of the transaction, which It was initially announced in January 2022.
The closure has been possible after the approval that the CMA finally gave this Friday to the purchase by Microsoft of the video game developer Activision Blizzard, after last August the parties reformulated the initial merger agreement to transfer to Ubisoft Activision’s cloud gaming business.
“As a result of this concession, the CMA agreed to review the agreement and began a new investigation in August. That investigation was completed today with the CMA’s authorization of this smaller scope transaction,” announced the British regulator, which last month April decided to block the transaction under its original conditions.
Thus, after the transfer to the French company Ubisoft of the rights to Activision’s cloud gaming business, the CMA considers that the new agreement will prevent Microsoft from blocking competition in that market segment, preserving competitive prices and services for users. UK cloud gaming customers.
“We sent a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they addressed our concerns comprehensively,” said Sarah Cardell, executive director of the CMA, who stressed that the regulator makes its decisions free of political influence. “We will not be influenced by the business lobby,” she added.
In this sense, the British regulator has stressed that, with the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, it is guaranteed that Microsoft cannot have absolute dominance over this market. “We are the only competition agency worldwide that has achieved this result,” he boasted.
After learning of the CMA’s decision in favor of the merger under the new conditions set, Microsoft president Brad Smith has expressed his gratitude for the exhaustive review and decision of the British regulator.
“We have now overcome the final regulatory hurdle to close this acquisition, which we believe will benefit players and the gaming industry worldwide,” he added.
Microsoft and Activision proposed a new merger agreement for approval by the CMA in August, after the British regulator determined that the original pact, valued at about $69 billion, would be blocked to protect innovation and choice in gaming in Cloud.
Under the restructured deal, Microsoft will no longer acquire cloud rights for Activision’s existing PC and console games, nor for new games released by Activision over the next 15 years (this excludes the European Economic Area).
Instead, these rights will be sold to French company Ubisoft Entertainment ahead of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision.
In this way, Ubisoft will be able to license Activision content under different business models, including subscription services, in addition to providing the French company with the ability to require Microsoft to offer versions of games on operating systems other than Windows.
On July 19, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to extend until October 18 the deadline for closing the purchase by the Redmond giant of the studio responsible for video games such as the ‘Call of Duty’ saga.
The transaction, agreed for around $69 billion in January 2022, was initially set as a closing date of July 18, 2023.
