EU approves Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard
The EU has approved Microsoft’s $69bn (£55bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard, in a move that puts Brussels at loggerheads with its UK counterpart over the gaming mega-deal.
The EU accepted Microsoft’s concessions on cloud gaming, the same problem that led the Competition and Markets Authority to block the transaction last month. The proposed deal would bring together Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox console, with the video game developer behind titles including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Candy Crush Saga and Overwatch.
The move by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, will revive Microsoft’s hopes for the deal as it prepares to appeal against the CMA’s decision. The Federal Trade Commission in the US has also come out against the takeover and is suing to block it.
The commission’s preliminary investigation had found that the deal could harm competition in cloud gaming, which allows users to stream video games stored on remote servers on to their devices, and in the supply of rival PC operating systems. However, the commission said on Monday it had accepted Microsoft’s proposed remedies including issuing a free licence to cloud gaming providers to allow European gamers to stream any Activision Blizzard PC and console games.
“These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud game streaming compared to the current situation,” said the commission, citing the fact that Activision Blizzard does not license its games to cloud game streaming services currently.
The EU decision will help Microsoft if the US tech firm succeeds in overturning the CMA in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, said Anne Witt, a
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