South Africa Unconditionally Approved MS-Activision Deal

gameranx.com:

The Competition Tribunal of South Africa has approved the Microsoft – Activision deal, unconditionally.

Klobrille revealed the news on Twitter. The regulator shared this message on their website:

“The Competition Tribunal (“Tribunal”) has unconditionally approved the proposed merger, which is a global transaction, whereby Anchorage Merger Sub Inc. (“Anchorage”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) intends to acquire Activision Blizzard, Inc. (“Activision”).

The Tribunal’s reasons for its decision will be issued in due course.

The acquiring group (Anchorage, Microsoft and all firms controlled by Microsoft), through Microsoft, is a global technology company that provides information technology (“IT”) related services. Its gaming activities are relevant to this proposed merger. These involve the development, publishing and distribution of games for personal computers, consoles and mobile devices through Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft also publishes games developed by other game developers. It offers Xbox gaming consoles and the Surface series of personal computers.

Activision develops games for computers, consoles and mobile devices and publishes them in most countries around the world. Activision’s most notable content is the Call of Duty series of games, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, a mobile game. As well as offering paid-for full-games, free-to-play games and in-game content, Activision offers a subscription service for players of the World of Warcraft franchise.”

Of course, that just adds to the dimensions of how in most parts of the world, the deal had been approved without much reservation.

The circumstances may truly be different in US and the UK, where there is both a big