Microsoft and UK regulators agree to pause their Activision battle to negotiate

theverge.com:

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

Microsoft and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have both agreed to pause their legal battle over the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition in order to further negotiate. Microsoft has just won a separate ruling with a US federal court against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the CMA is the last regulator preventing the Xbox maker from completing its $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard deal.

The UK regulator moved to block Microsoft’s proposed acquisition in April, and Microsoft was due to appeal that decision with a hearing set to start on July 28th. Microsoft has now agreed with the CMA to pause its appeal process to look at how the transaction could be modified to address the CMA’s cloud gaming concerns.

“After today’s court decision in the U.S., our focus now turns back to the UK. While we ultimately disagree with the CMA’s concerns, we are considering how the transaction might be modified in order to address those concerns in a way that is acceptable to the CMA,” says Microsoft president Brad Smith in a statement to The Verge. “In order to prioritize work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of the litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and the parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect.”

The CMA confirmed the decision in a statement to The Verge, noting that the regulator is “ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction in a way that would address the concerns set out in our Final