Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard could conclude on Friday the 13th

gamedeveloper.com:

Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard might be coming to a particularly spooky conclusion. Sources close to the deal have told The Verge that the long, knock-down drag-out process might conclude on Friday October 13.

The conclusion of the deal apparently lays in the hands of the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority which initially blocked the merger on the grounds it would harm competition in the world of cloud game streaming. It reversed course and provisionally approved the merger after the terms of the deal were restructured.

Said rumble in the UK coincided with a regulatory brawl in United States, where the Federal Trade Commission raced to block the merger on the grounds it would harm competition in the broader video game market. A judge ruled against the FTC, and the agency suspended its challenge in the following weeks.

If the deal is finally being sealed it will conclude a tumultuous saga that technically began the day the State of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for allegedly fostering a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination, a culture that follow-up reporting implied went all the way up to CEO Bobby Kotick. The company has repeatedly and vocally denied the claims while also settling a lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the same grounds for $18 million. (Some of its pushbacks against the ongoing controversy have involved some dubious claims, like that the repeated employee walkouts were instigated by outside agitators like the Communication Workers of America).

It's been reported in the months after the lawsuit that Activision Blizzard began courting buyers in the broader video