The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued its preliminary verdict: Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard is likely to be approved. While the final outcome is still pending, today’s decision is part of an open letter from Bobby Kotick.
Microsoft’s planned takeover of Activision Blizzard has overcome an important hurdle. The British regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave their preliminary approval.
The CMA originally vetoed the deal in April due to concerns about its potential impact on the cloud gaming market, blocking the deal. Now the path to a successful conclusion seems to be clear, even if the final decision is still pending.
Bobby Kotick speaks up
Along with the CMA’s decision, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick wrote an open letter to employees expressing confidence that the relatively safe acquisition will lead to better games.
“The UK regulator CMA today granted preliminary approval for our merger with Microsoft, based on the solutions presented by Microsoft in the new merger application. This approval is critical to completing our merger,” Kotick’s statement begins.
For the final decision, the CMA will obtain feedback from third parties and, based on this, come to a final conclusion. After the original CMA blockade, the turning point was Microsoft’s sale of streaming rights to the French publisher Ubisoft. Also read:
Ultimately, Kotick seems confident that the sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft can be completed in a timely manner. As he continues his statement on the interim CMA decision, he highlights the benefits he expects.
“As I said when announcing the merger, this transaction will help us accelerate our ambitions for the future of gaming and better serve our players,” said Activision Blizzard CEO.
Resources, technologies and tools are intended to advance games
At the same time, Kotick emphasized that Microsoft recognizes the publisher’s decades-long “commitment to excellence and creative independence.” He is convinced that Microsoft’s resources, technologies and tools will give Activision Blizzard even greater opportunities to create better games.
“This is an important milestone for the merger and a testament to our solutions-focused work with regulators,” Kotick’s letter continued. “I remain optimistic as we continue the journey toward graduation. And I am very grateful to each of you for your commitment and focus throughout this process.”
As the UK regulator finalizes its process, Activision Blizzard would like to keep everyone informed of the progress towards the acquisition.
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Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard appears to be on the home stretch with the latest announcement, even if it is only preliminary. The tech giant will invest around $69 billion in the publisher behind “Call of Duty”.
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