Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Merger Approved by South Africa

wccftech.com:

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition is still ongoing sixteen months after it was originally announced, and several countries have had to voice their approval or denial of the upcoming merger. By this point, Microsoft’s seen opposition from several countries, including the United Kingdom, support from others like Brazil, and multiple countries stating that the acquisition wouldn’t cause substantial harm to competition.

Earlier today, another country expressed its approval of the almost year-and-a-half merger process: South Africa. Their Competition Commission has gone on record and released a statement to the Competition Tribunal (a company based in Canada), which reads as follows:

The primary competition concern in this transaction arose from the concern that Microsoft may, post-merger, restrict the distribution of Call of Duty to the Microsoft console, Xbox, or make Call of Duty available on terms that exclude or undermine the ability of other console manufacturers to compete.

The commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in significant foreclosure concerns as the parties do not have the ability and incentive to foreclose competing game distributors, particularly Sony and Nintendo. Furthermore, the merging parties have made undertakings to continue supplying Call of Duty games to other console manufacturers.

Therefore, the commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant markets. The commission further found that the proposed transaction does not raise any substantial public interest concerns.

For what it’s worth, a country like South Africa wouldn’t have as significant an impact as the EU