The European Union has approved Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, allowing it to hurdle another obstacle in its very long road to deal closure. The European.
What just happened? Microsoft just got approval from the European Commission to buyout Activision Blizzard King. However, it still has a long way to convince US and UK authorities. However, one has to give the Redmond tech giant credit for sticking to it. Never in my life have I seen more friction directed at two companies that willingly want to merge. But is that tenacity stemming from commitment to the deal or desperation to catch up to Sony in the console wars?
The European Union has approved Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, allowing it to hurdle another obstacle in its very long road to deal closure. The European Commission said it would hold Microsoft to honor its suggested concessions.
« The approval is conditional on full compliance with the commitments offered by Microsoft, » the EC said in its press release.
The Commission said that Microsoft’s compromises « satisfied » the EC’s primary concerns, which revolved around the cloud gaming space. It believes that the merger would not harm the console or multi-game subscription services competition. Instead, it fears the deal significantly impacts growth and innovation in the burgeoning cloud-gaming market. It also argued that if the Redmond firm made Activision games exclusive to its streaming platform (formerly xCloud), it would, by extension, « strengthen » the Windows operating system to an unfair degree.
