Tag Archives: CMA

Over a year and a half on from Microsoft's announcement of its $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, the company has cleared the final regulatory hurdle. The UK's Competition & Markets Authority has now approved the deal and Microsoft is set to complete the transaction. 

Earlier this month, reports claimed that Microsoft would obtain UK approval for its Activision Blizzard deal this week, with plans to close as soon as this coming Friday. However, given that the deal was tweaked after obtaining EU approval for the old deal, there have been questions as to whether …

It was January 2022 when Microsoft first announced its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard. Now some 20 months later, the deal finally looks set to close next Friday.  According to “a source familiar with Microsoft's plans” speaking with The Verge, Microsoft is hoping to complete the transaction on Friday, the …

While the UK's Competition & Markets Authority initially chose to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, things have changed in recent months. Both parties paused appeal proceedings to evaluate a new version of the merger, in which Activision's cloud gaming rights would be sold off to Ubisoft. Now, the CMA …

Last month, Microsoft and the CMA jointly agreed to put the appeal process on hold to go back to the drawing board on the proposed Activision Blizzard merger. At that time, the deadline for closing the deal was also extended. Now, we finally have an update from the CMA, revealing that Microsoft plans to sell off its cloud gaming rights to Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. 

This week, a US court officially made its decision on Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, denying the FTC's request to block the merger. This leaves the UK's CMA as the final hurdle against the deal closing and within an hour of the US court decision going public, Microsoft and the CMA announced a plan to pause their appeal battle to renegotiate. At the rate things are going, Microsoft could officially own Activision Blizzard as soon as next week. 

Earlier this afternoon, a US judge blocked the FTC's request for an injunction to stop Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. With this loss, the only regulator standing to stop the deal from closing immediately is the UK's CMA. Within an hour of the US court decision coming down, Microsoft has …

The FTC's case against Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition finally entered federal court in recent weeks. While the UK's CMA wanted to block the deal on cloud gaming concerns, the FTC's case primarily focused on the deal's impact on Sony and the PlayStation business. Now, the judge has rejected the FTC's …

Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is in an interesting position right now. The company was able win over competing cloud companies and the European Commission with its commitments to bring Activision Blizzard and Xbox first-party PC games to rival cloud gaming services. However, in the UK, the CMA has …

The Microsoft-ABK acquisition has turned into a political circus here in the UK and Microsoft is making sure to throw its weight around, going as far as to hint at the possibility of pulling products out of the UK and investing elsewhere.

We've all seen the ten-year deals Microsoft has signed with various cloud gaming companies to offer Activision titles like Call of Duty to rival cloud gaming providers. As it turns out, in order to get its acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved by the EU, Microsoft had to go a step …

This afternoon, the European Commission officially approved Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, noting that the remedies offered by Microsoft should be enough to do away with competition concerns. Now, the UK's Competition & Markets Authority has responded, saying it stands by its initial decision.  In a series of tweets …

The CMA may have opted to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard but Microsoft is showing no signs of backing down. The company is already preparing to appeal the ruling and in the meantime, the company is also still signing 10-year deals guaranteeing access to major IP to other cloud …

Earlier this week, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) officially announced its decision to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing concerns around the future of the cloud gaming market. Now, some of the cloud gaming companies that Microsoft signed deals with are speaking out in favour of the …

The CMA announced its final decision on Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard today, moving to block the deal based on concerns around the future of the cloud gaming market. As you would expect, Microsoft and Activision have been quick to issue statements, with Activision going as far as to …

While Microsoft was able to convince the UK's Competition & Markets Authority that its acquisition of Activision Blizzard would not harm the console gaming market, it would seem the CMA was not convinced that the deal wouldn't impede competition in the cloud gaming market. 

The CMA has set a 26th of April deadline to announce its final decision on Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The CMA has already changed its initial stance, finding that the deal would not harm competition in the console space. As it turns out, the Xbox team is also …

The CMA has published its latest update into its ongoing investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. While previously, the regulator seemed to have many concerns, it has now “narrowed its scope” of issues with the deal and no longer feels that it would “result in a substantial lessening …

While we've known for a while now that Sony has been in talks with the CMA to express concerns about Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, we haven't heard much about studios speaking out in defence of the acquisition. That changed today, with the CMA's filings being updated with responses …

Microsoft's latest filing with the UK's Competition & Markets Authority was published this week with the company responding to a few more of the CMA's concerns. One such concern the CMA laid out was the potential for Microsoft to raise Game Pass pricing following the Activision Blizzard acquisition, but Microsoft …

Yesterday, Microsoft had a meeting with the European Commission to further discuss the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Shortly after, Microsoft held its own press briefing to answer a few questions about the deal and the ongoing process. During this, Microsoft President, Brad Smith, was asked if the company would be open …

It is no secret that Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is on shaky ground, with regulators seemingly wholeheartedly buying into Sony's objections to the deal, while also having concerns about the future of the cloud gaming market. According to a report this week, Microsoft is now preparing its ‘last-ditch' …

Documents from the CMA's investigation into the Microsoft-Activision merger have been made public for a while and plenty have found interesting details within them. Most recently, a line in one of the documents shows Microsoft confirming that titles on Game Pass do lose a non-disclosed percentage of sales while on …

As anticipated, the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that it believes Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard would harm the UK market. The CMA confirmed its concerns in documents released today, but it has also sent a list of potential remedies to Microsoft.  The CMA has concluded …

While the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) was conducting its initial investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, the floor was opened up for the public to send in comments about the deal. The results of those comments have now been revealed, with around 75 percent of respondents being in …

We've known about a few of the complaints Sony has been sending to regulators in regard to Microsoft's planned Activision Blizzard merger for a while now. As the UK's CMA moves on towards its Phase 2 investigation into the deal, Sony's complaint filing has been made public, revealing some of …

If Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal does go through in 2023, many of us were expecting to see Call of Duty heading straight to Xbox Game Pass. However, it may take a little longer for the flagship franchise to hit Microsoft's gaming subscription service.  Microsoft is facing an unexpected level of …

Earlier this month, the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it has reached a new stage in its probe into Microsoft's planned Activision Blizzard acquisition. In short, the CMA has concerns that the deal could harm competition and on that basis, the case is now being recommended for …

Back in January, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal worth a record-breaking $69 billion. However, the deal is far from done, as Microsoft faces regulatory challenges. This week, another hurdle was placed in the way, as the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) announced plans to …

Earlier this year, Microsoft made some consumer-friendly changes to the way it handles subscriptions on Xbox, following an investigation by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Now a few months later, Nintendo and Sony have adopted similar policies for Nintendo Switch Online and PlayStation Plus.  The CMA has been …