Final obstacle to Microsoft-Activision merger removed

polygon.com:

It now appears clear that Microsoft will be able to complete its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard within the next month. U.K. antitrust body the Competition and Markets Authority, which is the last remaining regulatory holdout with the legal authority to block the deal, says its concerns have been substantially addressed by Microsoft’s latest proposal.

Microsoft has handed the CMA a major concession: the cloud gaming rights to all of Activision Blizzard’s games will be carved out and sold separately to Ubisoft. Microsoft will still theoretically be able to put Activision Blizzard games on its own cloud gaming service, but despite owning the games, it will have to go to Ubisoft and bid for those rights like any of its competitors in the space — and it won’t be able to withhold them from other services.

The CMA, which was worried about the deal’s potential to close out competition in the nascent cloud gaming market, seems satisfied. “The prior sale of the cloud gaming rights will establish Ubisoft as a key supplier of content to cloud gaming services, replicating the role that Activision would have played in the market as an independent player,” it said.

The CMA’s decision is provisional, and its final approval is still subject to working out a few kinks with Microsoft. But it now seems certain that the CMA will give the deal an official green light before the extended deal deadline of Oct. 18 set by Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. It looks like Microsoft will finally own Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush within the next few weeks — and can begin considering which of Activision Blizzard’s games to add to its Game Pass subscription service.

Microsoft’s willingness to carve out cloud gaming