Amid Microsoft’s ongoing struggles to push its Activision acquisition through regulatory processes, a new report suggests the EU will approve the purchase and remove itself as an obstacle from the deal’s finalization.
Per a Reuters report Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said EU antitrust regulators are likely to approve Microsoft’s acquisition effort on Monday, approximately three weeks after the U.K. stepped in to block the deal.
The acquisition is being cleared, Reuters said, in part because Microsoft agreed to various licensing arrangements with rivals in the cloud streaming space, including Ubitus and Nvidia. The cloud sector was a key component of why the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the deal, so it remains to be seen whether Microsoft’s continued efforts to make licensing deals and other various shows of cloud cooperation will be enough to win an appeal with the CMA.
A European Commission spokesperson would not confirm Reuters’ reporting to TheWrap, saying, “The investigation is ongoing. The provisional deadline for the Commission to take a decision is 22 May 2023.”
Activision Blizzard King declined comment and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Should the $69 billion acquisition effort go through, it will give Microsoft control of major gaming franchises such as “Call of Duty” and “Diablo,” not long after the Windows maker acquired ZeniMax and its stable of high-profile properties, including “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout.”
