Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been a trending topic for a while. The merger has been awaiting approval from several countries before proceeding, and today another country has approved the merger.
Türkiye has approved the Microsoft-Activision merger without any conditions, becoming the 40th country to approve the deal.
Why it matters: With more countries approving the merger, the deal may close very soon, and the $68.7 billion purchase will mark the biggest successful acquisition in the gaming industry.
Today, Turkey unconditionally approved our merger with Microsoft.
Now, yet another country has arrived at a thoughtful decision that protects consumers and competition rather than the entrenched dominance of the market leader.
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) July 13, 2023
Previously, countries like South Africa, South Korea, and China approved the deal unconditionally, seeing no harm in the consumer market over the merger.
While these countries had no concerns over the merger, big regulators like the CMA and FTC rejected the approval. The FTC argued that the deal could harm competition in the gaming market, such as restricting Activision’s biggest IP, Call of Duty, to just Xbox.
On the other hand, the CMA rejected the deal because the regulator believed it could harm the cloud gaming market, despite Microsoft offering several remedies for it.
The deal appeared to be in trouble and had a chance of falling through. However, Microsoft emerged victorious against the FTC in court and was allowed to proceed with the merger.
While Microsoft had already appealed the CMA’s decision in court, both parties have now agreed to pause the appeal to restructure the deal, which would address concerns. Given the positive outcomes, the deal is speculated to close very soon in the coming days.
With the acquisition of Activision, Microsoft could expand its already huge Game Pass library by adding Activision Blizzard games like Call of Duty, with the franchise expected to join the subscription service by 2025.
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