Yesterday, Microsoft officially won its court case against the Federal Trade Commission, clearing the way for the company to move forward with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the US. However, the company still has a few hurdles to clear in other countries to get the deal completely over the line. The most prominent of these is likely the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which previously was seeking to block the deal. After yesterday’s announcement, it appears that the CMA is, for now, standing by that decision, though there are ongoing negotiations about Microsoft’s purchase that have now been re-ignited.
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Speaking to The Verge, CMA media officer Billy Proudlock spoke about how the two companies are currently in the early stages of discussions after the FTC ruling. While there’s not much that’s been settled on, both parties have put a pause on Microsoft’s appeal against the CMA’s original ruling as the two sides continue to discuss. Proudlock said, “Whilst merging parties don’t have the opportunity to put forward new remedies once a final report has been issued, they can choose to restructure a deal, which can lead to a new merger investigation.”
He then added that “Microsoft and Activision have indicated that they are considering how the transaction might be modified, and the CMA is prepared to engage with them on this basis.” Though again, these discussions “remain at an early stage,” meaning that it could be some time before we hear more. That said, with the CMA being one of the last big hurdles for the deal, it makes sense for Microsoft to take them back to the negotiation table to get this all sorted out. Remember, the CMA originally blocked the deal because of cloud concerns earlier this year, so those concerns will need to be addressed, which is something the company has already been doing before this ruling.
In fact, EU regulators had similar cloud gaming concerns, but Microsoft signed a 10-year licensing deal to offer cloud gaming competitors access to its services. It will be interesting to see what else comes from these new negotiations, though there is always the chance that Microsoft will look for ways to close the deal without getting the approval of the CMA.
