Regulators in Britain first disapproved of Microsoft buying Activision-Blizzard's epid $68bn gaming deal—and now they've approved it.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded that the deal can proceed after Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. The decision clears the way for the deal to close now that the UK regulator has given the green light.
"The CMA has decided to give Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) consent to acquire Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Activision) (the Parties) excluding Activision's cloud streaming rights outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) (the Merger) subject to the condition that the sale of Activision's cloud streaming rights completes prior to completion of the Merger," reads a statement from the CMA.
It seems like a token concession: everything supposedly bad about the deal, on all the obvious grounds, is still bad about it. Someday someone will write a book about it.
