The UK Market Commission has prevented Microsoft’s purchase of Activision.
It was one of the great news of last year 2022, although from the moment that Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard we found out that get the go-ahead from regulators it was going to be a difficult mission for Microsoft. And so it has been, well UK has decided to block the acquisitionreferring to the negative implications that this purchase could have on the future of the cloud gaming market.
In the statement, they explain that the decision has been made to prevent the agreementvalued at $68.7 billionafter considering the measures proposed by Microsoft to solve the concerns of the regulatory body regarding the position of the redmond giant within the cloud gaming sector.
In that sense, as they echo from AlphaBetaPlaythe UK Competition and Markets Authority alleges that Microsoft maintains a strong position when it comes to cloud gaming services, and the acquisition of Activision would make it very beneficial for the company make the studio’s games exclusive to their own service of games.
Microsoft will appeal decision made by UK regulators
The CMA has needed three months to analyze the more than three million documents and more than two thousand emails related to the acquisition, with the aim of studying the impact of the agreement on competing companies and on the video game market.
These documents were part of Microsoft’s response to the concerns of regulatory bodies, which, in the end, has not been viewed favorably by the CMA, since “it contained a series of important deficiencies related to the growing and changing nature of services of gaming in the cloud”.
The agency claims to have carefully studied Microsoft’s proposal and the consequences of the possible acquisition. Finally, it has been decided that although the agreement would be beneficial for some clients, would not be enough to compensate the damage caused to the competitionand therefore it has been decided to block the acquisition.
We remain fully committed to our acquisition with @ATVI_AB and will appeal today’s determination by the CMA. Here’s our statement. pic.twitter.com/ylvDP5RUqQ
—Brad Smith (@BradSmi) April 26, 2023
Microsoft, for its part, has made its disagreement clear through a spokesman and has confirmed that the CMA’s decision will be appealed. The CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, has also assured that the company is already working on the appeal which will soon be submitted to the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.
