Meanwhile the European Commission has decided to proceed with Phase 2 of the investigation, the regulatory body of Serbia has decided to approve the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King by Microsoft, which hopes to permanently bring publishers and associated studios under its wing during 2023.
We already knew that the acquisition had obtained the go-ahead from the regulatory bodies of Brazil and Saudi Arabia, and an official document released by the Serbian government declares the agreement approved in this case as well mega acquisition of almost 70 billion dollars.
The decision refers to the local market of Serbia, which sees Valve contrast alone on the PC market and Nintendo excel on the console market, with Sony and Microsoft following in second and third position respectively. Considering the non-privileged role of Xbox on Serbian territory, together with the fact that blockbusters like Call of Duty will also continue to be released on PlayStation, the antitrust judged that there was no any presupposition for the creation of a sort of monopoly by the Redmond giant, and that competition in the videogame sector will also be ensured after the acquisition has taken place.
The negotiation matters to this day three total approvalsbut for the final green light it will be important to listen to the final opinion of more decisive regulatory bodies such as the European Commission, the CMA and the FTC.
