Activision Blizzard/Microsoft Deal Officially Cleared in New Zealand, Too

wccftech.com:

Today, after a long list of eight delays (called time extensions), the New Zealand Commerce Commission has officially cleared Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That makes the Pacific Ocean island country the 42nd where the deal has been approved, although technically, the Federal Trade Commission may still continue to pursue its in-house judiciary process even after being defeated in federal court following the request for a preliminary injunction.

The New Zealand regulator had previously expressed some concerns on the Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft in a Statement of Issues document released on June 20th.

We are concerned that these effects may arise as a result of the merged entity either partially or fully foreclosing its rivals in cloud gaming, such as Sony or NVIDIA, from accessing certain Activision content, and in particular the game Call of Duty (CoD), to the detriment of competition in cloud gaming. We are also continuing to consider whether the Proposed Transaction would substantially lessen competition due the merged entity either partially or fully foreclosing its rivals in gaming consoles, in particular Sony, from accessing certain Activision content to the detriment of competition in the supply of video game consoles. If Activision’s game titles are sufficiently important to driving sales of cloud gaming services or video game consoles, then this could result in the merged entity having both incentive and ability to foreclose rivals’ access to this content, weakening their ability to compete.

However, today's clearance makes it obvious those concerns have been overcome. In the press release that accompanied the announcement, Commission Chair Dr John Small stated:

While Activision