The Microsoft Activision Blizzard Deal: A Complete Timeline of Events

13.10.2023 - 13:17 / ign.com

After one year, eight months, and 26 days, Xbox has finally completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, meaning it now owns premium video game franchises including Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo.

Microsoft announced its intention to buy Activision Blizzard on January 18, 2022 but unlike its relatively smooth acquisitions of studios like Starfield and Fallout maker Bethesda, the historic $68.7 billion deal was almost brought to a halt several times.

The deal seemed doomed at times, with the United States' Federal Trade Commission (FTC), European Union, and UK's Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) all bearing down on Xbox and Activision Blizzard. The pair emerged successful, however, as the deal was finally closed on October 13, 2023.

IGN has outlined every challenge faced by Microsoft and Activision Blizzard below, providing a complete history of the deal and how they finally managed to push it through.

The first in a long line of concerns surrounding the Activision Blizzard acquisition arrived on April 1, 2022 as four U.S. senators including Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenging consolidation in the tech industry.

Sanders alongside Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Sheldon Whitehouse, wrote they were "deeply concerned" about the deal's impact on workers. The senators referenced the wave of sexual harassment and other allegations issued against Activision Blizzard, saying the acquisition could "further disenfranchise these workers and prevent their voices from being heard."

The letter continued: "The FTC should assess whether the ways in which these companies have failed to protect the rights and dignity of their workers are driven by monopsony power or amount to anticompetitive harms in our labour market, and if so, if the merger will exacerbate these problems."

What could have been a strong step forward for the deal only raised more questions as, on April 28, 2022, 98% of Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve the company's acquisition by Microsoft.

The deal was approved at $95 a share, but shareholders grew concerned as this number had been slowly lowering at the time to the low $80 range and as low as $75.60 on April 29. This was interpreted by some as a lack of shareholder confidence around the deal's ability to ultimately pass.

Despite dipping further towards the end of the year, however, and encountering some other ups and downs, share prices began steadily rising again as of May 2023.

What would become the biggest hurdle for Microsoft and Activision Blizzard to overcome began on July 6, 2022 as the UK government's Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) announced an investigation into the deal.

Responsible for ensuring fair