Microsoft-Activision Acquisition: Everything to Know About Deal, Challenges
The US Federal Trade Commission on Thursday asked an appeals court to temporarily stop Microsoft's $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,67,00 crore) acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, hours after a federal judge rejected a similar request.
The deal is facing varying responses around the world from regulators.
What is the Activision deal?
Microsoft announced the Activision bid in January last year to boost its firepower in the booming videogaming market, take on leaders Tencent and Sony, and lay the base for its investment in metaverse and digital spaces which are made more lifelike by the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR).
To quell antitrust concerns Microsoft, which owns Xbox, in February said it is ready to offer rivals licensing deals but it would not to sell Activision's lucrative Call of Duty franchise.
What do antitrust regulators say?
Britain's antitrust regulator, which blocked the deal in April, took a U-turn after a federal US judge rejected the FTC's request to put the deal on hold.
UK's Competition and Markets Authority said a restructured deal between the two US companies could satisfy its concerns, subject to a new investigation. The CMA extended its deadline to make a decision to August 29.
The US antitrust regulator and Britain's Competition and Markets Authority have varying concerns over the deal.
The FTC says the deal could let Microsoft degrade Activision's game quality or player experience on rival consoles like Nintendo consoles and Sony Group's PlayStation, manipulate pricing or change terms or timing of access to Activision content.
Britain's CMA stopped the deal over anti-competitive concerns around cloud gaming, which it called an "an emerging and exciting
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