The European Union has not approved the deal to acquire Activision Blizzard from Microsoft. What does this mean for future business mergers?

The topic of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been one of the hottest topics in our industry for many years, and it looks like more information on this topic will appear on the web for a long time to come. Given the size of the merger and the purchase price ($69 billion), the relevant authorities should prioritize the deal. While both companies appear confident that the purchase will end next year, European officials do not seem to share that enthusiasm.

The European Union has not currently approved the merger of Activision Blizzard and Microsoft. Now the next stage of the investigation will start and will last until March 2023. The EU will then make the final decision on whether to accept or block the purchase.

The UK competition authority has concerns about Activision Blizzard’s merger with Microsoft

The past few weeks have mainly been Phil Spencer’s visual determination to push the deal forward (promising that the Call of Duty brand will remain on PlayStation forever), while Sony and Jim Ryan are doing their best to prove that the Microsoft acquisition will have a real impact on the future of The gaming market, which will negatively affect the PlayStation brand. European institutions seem to share Sony’s concerns. Initially, the United Kingdom began the next stage of its investigation, and now the European Union Microsoft initially banned Activision Blizzard’s acquisition, as we can read about in the official press release.

Microsoft may have problems obtaining Activision Blizzard. Relevant Senators Stand in the Way of Consolidation

The European Commission is now launching an in-depth investigation to assess Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard under the EU Merger Regulation. The European Commission is concerned that Microsoft’s proposed acquisition could limit competition in the markets for the distribution of video games for consoles and personal computers (PCs) and operating systems for computers. Despite the assurances of Phil Spencer, the European Commission has concerns that the completion of this deal will lead to a situation in which Microsoft will start banning some games for non-corporate platforms (we are talking mainly about Call of Duty here). The second stage of the investigation will continue until March 23, 2023, after which we will receive the final evaluation of the European Commission, which will result in the acceptance or rejection of the offer.

Source: European Union