Microsoft, Activision give themselves three more months to close $68.7BN mega-merger

techcrunch.com:

Microsoft and Activision have jointly agreed to extend the deadline to complete their mega merger for a further three months in order, they say, to allow time to resolve “remaining regulatory concerns”.

The original deadline for Microsoft to close the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision it announced back in January 2022 was July 18 (yesterday). But the pair have agreed a new date of October 18 to complete the transaction.

“Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have jointly agreed to extend the merger agreement deadline from July 18, 2023 to October 18, 2023, to allow for additional time to resolve remaining regulatory concerns,” they wrote in a press release about the merger agreement extension.

The agreement also sets out two additional earlier deadlines, of August 29 and September 15, when termination fees payable to Microsoft — i.e. in the event the deal does not close — will increase from $3BN to $3.5BN and from $3.5BN to $4.5BN respectively.

But the pair are evidently hoping the transaction will end in successful closure, not termination.

In a memo to staff today, Microsoft’s Xbox chief Phil Spencer wrote:

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard remain optimistic that we will get our acquisition over the finish line, so we have jointly agreed to extend the merger agreement to October 18, 2023. While we can technically close in the United States due to recent legal developments, this extension gives us additional time to resolve the remaining regulatory concerns in the UK.

The $68.7BN mega merger has been complicated by regulatory opposition in the US and UK — including a decision by the UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in April to block the acquisition, citing concerns that it would