Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition preliminary approved by CMA, deal could close sooner than expected

Microsoft's $69 Billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard appears to be entering its final act with the UK CMA preliminarily approving it, following restriction of the deal and selling cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft. Announced back in January 2022, the tech giant's acquisition of Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard is undoubtedly one of the biggest acquisitions in the video game industry, if not the entire entertainment industry.

Since its announcement, the deal has faced multiple obstacles, most notably from US and UK-based competitive agencies, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Competition and Markets Authority. The FTC's lawsuit was dismissed back in July, leaving the CMA as the final major roadblock for the tech giant.

While the CMA rejected Sony's claim of console exclusivity, its main concern was regarding cloud gaming. Xbox is already a leading market leader in cloud gaming with Game Pass, especially after the failure of Google Stadia and the lukewarm response to Amazon Luna.

Following its preliminary block, Microsoft and the CMA extended the deadline to October 18, while the former promised to address the issues. As a result, the tech giant signed a deal with the French video game publisher Ubisoft to hand over cloud streaming rights for all Activision games for the next 15 years.

It appears that this remedy has been able to bring the two parties to the table and move the deal forward, as the CMA has given preliminary approval to the deal.

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Microsoft hopes to close the Activision acquisition by mid-October following CMA's preliminary approval

The CMA is more or less the final hurdle to be crossed when it comes to Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard. Since its announcement back in January of last year, the deal has come close to failure at times, but despite everything, it seems like the transaction will go through, marking a historic moment in the video game industry.

Following the CMA's announcement, Brad Smith, the Vice Chair and President at Microsoft, took to Twitter to say,

"We are encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process. We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline."

While the deal is, of course, not complete, it is fair to say that the end has never been close, and could be finalized as early as next month.