European Commission Approves Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard Acquisition
gameinformer.comFollowing an «in-depth» investigation, the European Commission has approved Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The investigation began last November, with the commission citing Microsoft's potential expansion into the cloud gaming market as a primary concern. This was just one of many roadblocks the company faced, including ongoing battles with America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Roughly summarized, here are the conclusions the European Commission came to as a result of their investigations:
In response, Microsoft has agreed to a free license that would allow residents in the European Economic Area to use any cloud platform they want to stream all current and future Activision-Blizzard games, as well as a license that allows cloud service providers to provide those services. The European Commission is quite pleased with this outcome, stating, «These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud game streaming compared to the current situation.»
Additionally, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick released this statement on the decision.
While this is certainly a sizeable victory for the merger, it still has a long road to travel before being approved. In addition to its block in the UK, the company will have to negotiate with the FTC at a hearing in August.
Do you think this merger will go through? Let us know in the comments!
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