CMA Issues Preliminary Approval of Restructured Activision Blizzard Sale to Microsoft

The European Union is not going to be looking into the new deal Microsoft has proposed in acquiring Activision Blizzard.

As reported by Windows Central, sources have shared the inside details of an internal townhall yesterday between Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and Activision-Blizzard employees.

A few hours ago, Windows Central reported on an internal Activision Blizzard meeting where CEO Bobby Kotick answered a plethora of questions on the company's future after the closure of the $68.7 billion acquisition by Microsoft (rumored to take place in just two days, if UK regulator CMA approves the deal).

Unless the FTC's Lina Khan runs in at the last minute to physically tackle Bobby Kotick before he can sign anything, it's looking very likely that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard will close in the very near future. I mean very near, you understand, as in possibly this Friday, pending word from the UK market regulator. But if you think that heralds the imminent arrival of games like Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 on Microsoft's Game Pass service, Activision has news for you: It doesn't.

Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard might be coming to a particularly spooky conclusion. Sources close to the deal have told The Verge that the long, knock-down drag-out process might conclude on Friday October 13.

British regulators on Friday dropped their objections to Microsoft's attempt to buy video game firm Activision Blizzard, the maker of "Call of Duty", paving the way for the US tech titan to close one of the biggest technology acquisitions ever.

British regulators on Friday dropped their objections to Microsoft's attempt to buy video game firm Activision Blizzard, the maker of "Call of Duty", paving the way for the US tech titan to close one of the biggest technology acquisitions ever.

When Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to push back the closing date of their proposed merger by several months,  the effort was intended to handle a UK appeal of the deal's rejection. After submitting a revised deal, the UK regulators seem likely to  approve Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.

In January 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion. Since then, Microsoft has had to overcome several hurdles to get the deal approved in various regions. The UK has been one of the biggest obstacles, though it appears some important progress has been made.

Microsoft has been working incredibly hard to acquire Activision Blizzard. This has caused the team to go through several battles between regulators to ensure they can finalize the purchase. However, one particular regulator has been firm on not allowing this merger to happen. That is the UK regulator CMA. However, upon winning some additional regulators and filing an appeal process, the CMA has since expressed their desire to discuss this deal again, which prompted the appeal process to be put on hold. 

UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Last month, Microsoft submitted a new deal to the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority regulatory agency that proposes Ubisoft get the rights to Activision Blizzard game streaming for 15 years. Microsoft did this to get its acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved by the CMA after the regulator previously blocked it over cloud gaming concerns. One month later, the CMA has granted preliminary approval to Microsoft due to its new Ubisoft deal.