EU not investigating tweaked Microsoft Activision deal

The European Union is not going to be looking into the new deal Microsoft has proposed in acquiring Activision Blizzard.

As reported by Bloomberg, the European Commission has come to the conclusion that the changes made to the acquisition do not require further attention.

In August of this year, Microsoft submitted tweaked terms for the deal to address concerns raised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). That body blocked the deal on the basis that the Xbox giant already had a dominant position in the nascent cloud gaming space and that allowing it to acquire Activision Blizzard would only solidify this. Ubisoft has acquired the streaming rights for a one-off fee.

To address the UK CMA’s concerns regarding cloud streaming, Microsoft announced it filed a new merger application in the UK that includes a divestiture for cloud streaming rights at closing with respect to current and new PC and console games,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said at the time. 

“We welcome Microsoft’s decision to enter into this agreement and submit a new application to the CMA, which Microsoft believes will address the CMA’s concerns.

“For us, nothing substantially changes with the addition of this divestiture: our merger agreement with Microsoft, closing deadline, and the cash consideration to be paid for each Activision Blizzard share at closing remain the same. We will continue to work closely with Microsoft and the CMA throughout the remaining review process, and we are committed to help Microsoft clear any final hurdles as quickly as possible.”

A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment, but said that “closely following the developments in the UK and assessing their potential impact”.