UK regulator now says Microsoft Activision merger won’t significantly lessen competition in console gaming
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it no longer believes that Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard will significantly reduce competition in the console gaming space.
The watchdog said on Friday that it has updated its provisional findings after receiving fresh evidence that alleviated some of its concerns about the $69 billion deal.
While the CMA originally believed that making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox could be commercially beneficial for Microsoft, it said that new data it has received “indicates that this strategy would be significantly loss-making under any plausible scenario”.
In light of this, the CMA has narrowed the scope of its concerns about the deal.
“Provisional findings are a key aspect of the merger process and are explicitly designed to give the businesses involved, and any interested third parties, the chance to respond with new evidence before we make a final decision,” said Martin Coleman, chair of the independent panel conducting this CMA’s investigation.
“Having considered the additional evidence provided, we have now provisionally concluded that the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in console gaming services because the cost to Microsoft of withholding Call of Duty from PlayStation would outweigh any gains from taking such action.
“Our provisional view that this deal raises concerns in the cloud gaming market is not affected by today’s announcement. Our investigation remains on course for completion by the end of April.”
The CMA previously expressed concerns that the proposed acquisition could significantly reduce PlayStation’s ability to compete with Microsoft given that it would see the Xbox maker gain ownership of the Call of
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