(Bloomberg) — The UK’s surprise decision to stop the Microsoft Corp. $69 billion Activision Blizzard Inc. deal in its tracks shows a more muscular approach to deal enforcement that’s come into its own since Brexit. Most Read from BloombergTesla Drops Model Y Starting Price Below the Average US VehicleSingapore Hikes Property Tax, Doubling Rate on Foreigners to 60%Netflix Spain Lost 1 Million Users Last Quarter, Kantar SaysFirst Republic Faces Potential Curb on Borrowing From FedQuants Are ‘Out
The UK’s surprise decision to stop the Microsoft Corp. $69 billion Activision Blizzard Inc. deal in its tracks shows a more muscular approach to deal enforcement that’s come into its own since Brexit.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Tesla Drops Model Y Starting Price Below the Average US Vehicle
Singapore Hikes Property Tax, Doubling Rate on Foreigners to 60%
Netflix Spain Lost 1 Million Users Last Quarter, Kantar Says
First Republic Faces Potential Curb on Borrowing From Fed
Quants Are ‘Out of Ammo’ for Buying Stocks, Goldman Warns
The final ruling deals a blow to Microsoft’s chances of securing the world’s biggest gaming takeover and puts the Competition and Markets Authority at the center of global antitrust alongside the US and the EU. Wednesday’s decision is globally binding and the road to approval looks to be hard slog.
“The Microsoft-Activision decision is another clear example of the CMA establishing itself firmly as one of the most important competition enforcers on the world stage in the post-Brexit world,” Pinar Akman, a competition professor at the University of Leeds, said.
It’s the second, but by far the biggest, Big Tech tie-up that the CMA has blocked after ending Meta Platforms Inc.
