UK competitors regulator extends Microsoft-Activision investigation by six weeks

The saga over whether or not regulators will enable Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion will final at the very least a little bit longer. Citing inadequate time, the UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) has given itself a further six weeks to think about Microsoft’s “detailed and sophisticated submission” arguing for the merger. The CMA will now present a choice by August twenty ninth, although it goals to take action earlier.

Microsoft first introduced its plan to purchase Activision Blizzard for $95 per share in January 2022. The CMA opened an investigation into the merger final fall, and, this April, it launched an inquiry report detailing the “substantial lessening of competitors” (SLC) in cloud gaming companies the UK might face if Microsoft proceeded with the acquisition. “The prohibition of the Merger could be the one efficient and proportionate treatment to the SLC and any opposed results which have resulted from, or could also be anticipated to end result from, the SLC,” the regulatory company said. 

This newest improvement comes shortly after the CMA and Microsoft pressed pause on their authorized battle in hopes of negotiating a compromise. “Whereas we finally disagree with the CMA’s considerations, we’re contemplating how the transaction may be modified with a purpose to deal with these considerations in a manner that’s acceptable to the CMA,” Microsoft president Brad Smith shared in a July tweet. 

Choose Jacqueline Scott Corley additionally just lately denied the Federal Commerce Fee’s (FTC) preliminary injunction within the US, which might’ve led Microsoft and Activision Blizzard to desert the deal. The FTC has since filed an enchantment to the Ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals requesting a pause of the acquisition.