Microsoft Offers Compromise to EU over Activision Blizzard Deal
Microsoft is formally seeking compromise with the European Union over its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, having now offered a series of remedies to Brussels' antitrust authorities in a bid to win its approval of the transaction. According to previous reports, Microsoft has been preparing an EU concession package concerning the deal as early as November 2022.
Industry watchers have hence been predicting this turn of events for a while now, and though the EU hasn't yet mounted significant opposition to the deal, that's not to say the newly proposed remedies are just a formality. Not least because the European Commission started investigating Microsoft's Activision Blizzard takeover in late 2022, citing antitrust concerns.
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Microsoft has now moved to alleviate those reservations with a formal concession package, Reuters reports, citing confirmation from a company spokesperson and a separate European Commission filing dated March 17. The public docket for the case does not yet reflect this development, so the actual contents of the remedies that Microsoft proposed to the EU will likely remain unclear until at least next week. There's no uncertainty about the regulator's next step, however, with Brussels confirming it will now seek feedback from both consumers and Xbox rivals prior to making a ruling on the proposed merger. The current provisional deadline attached to the case is May 22, though that date has already been pushed back twice, each time by 10 days.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority recently found that half of Xbox rivals are concerned about the Activision Blizzard deal, so bar any major changes of heart, that's presumably what the EU will
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