UK Regulator CMA Extends Deadline In Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition Case

gameinformer.com:

U.K. regulatory agency, the Competition and Markets Authority, has extended its deadline for delivering a potentially new ruling on Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition by six weeks. 

In April, the CMA blocked this acquisition over cloud gaming concerns, making Microsoft’s fight for the green light in this acquisition more challenging. But it shifted its sights on the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. afterward, with plans to appeal the CMA’s ruling in the meantime. 

Earlier this week, California Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction in its case to block Microsoft and Xbox from acquiring Activision Blizzard. Shortly after that decision, Microsoft announced it paused its appeal efforts in the U.K. to negotiate with the CMA. The deadline for the CMA to listen and consider Microsoft’s new but currently unknown proposal to have the regulatory agency reverse course and rule this acquisition can go through in the U.K. was July 18. But the CMA has extended that deadline by six weeks to the new August 29, 2023 date. 

Here’s what the CMA wrote in its extension filing: 

This new date adds another wrinkle to Microsoft’s acquisition efforts. The company’s deadline to close the deal is July 18. After the FTC’s ruling – its appeal was denied, as expected, by Judge Corley, but a decision has not been made by the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit – Microsoft can theoretically close on time. 

In fact, New York City-based stock exchange NASDAQ announced yesterday that it is removing Activision Blizzard from the market before it opens on Monday, July 17, seemingly alluding to Microsoft closing the deal before then or shortly after (thanks, Tom Warren of The Verge).