Microsoft hopes that its acquisition of Activision Blizzard will be finalised by the 13th of October 2023! They are at the moment waiting for one more positive response from the Competition and Markets Authority.
In a report that was made, it was said that Microsoft would like to make their announcement that the acquisition has been formally approved by all commerce bodies by the 13th of October 2023.
It would seem that the Competition and Markets Authority which is the United Kingdom’s competition regulator has carefully taken into consideration the views of minor and major players in the gaming industry before they make any decision as to whether Microsoft should be allowed to acquire Activision Blizzard.
It seems that the Competitions and Markets Authority have been the toughest ones to convince that the acquisition should go through when it comes to the efforts from Microsoft.
In February 2023 Microsoft was told that it would have to divest Call of Duty for the acquisition to go through but a few months later in April the Competitions and Markets Authority changed its decision after Microsoft said that the franchise would still stay on all platforms for a further 10 years.
The regulator again in April then ruled against the acquisition and referred to Microsoft’s current strength within cloud gaming would be greater with Activision Blizzard within its portfolio.
The Competition and Markets Authority also prevented Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard without first allowing them to grant pre-clearance ahead of time.
A new proposal has now been made that would sell Ubisoft rights to all current and future games from Blizzard Activision for Ubisoft+. The Competition and Markets Authority said that it would now review this version of the acquisition and would make a decision before the 18th of October leading to Microsoft believing it could be as early as the 13th of October.
