Serbia Approves Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 29 November 2022 / 3,499 Views
The Serbia regulatory body has approved Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition, according to report from Reuters.
Serbia becomes the third place to approve the $68.7 billion deal, following Saudi Arabia in August and Brazil in October.
"The deal has been cleared unconditionally in Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Serbia," reads the Reuters report that focuses on Microsoft likely offering concessions to the European Commission, the European Union antitrust regulators, some time in the coming weeks over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard as a way to avoid formal objections.
One person with direct knowledge says the main concession is that Microsoft will have a 10 year licensing deal with PlayStation maker Sony.
Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard was announced in January of this year and still needs approval from several regulators around the world.
UK regulators, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), set a deadline of March 1, 2023 to publish its final report and decision on Microsoft's proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. This is part of its more in-depth Phase 2 investigation.
The European Commission earlier this month announced it has opened up an in-depth investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The Commission has expressed concerns the deal if approved might reduced competition in the video game markets of consoles and PCs, as well as for PC operating systems. One of the concerns is that Microsoft might limit access to Activision Blizzard games, including Call of Duty, and might stop these games from releasing on rival video game consoles.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Yay!!!!getting closer :)
Sounds like Microsoft's plan is to "flip" the EU to be in favour, and then use the concessions they offered the EU regulators as a template for getting the CMA and the FTC on side.
FTC better have some good lawyers. Not only are they arguing agaisnt a Trillor dollar brand, who will have the highest paid lawyers in the world, they will also need to argue why 90% of the world allow this buyout and the only part of the world who want to block it, use sentences like "My Playstation"
No, they don't have to argue that. Only US law matters in a US court.
Wait, they game in serbia?
Niko Bellic approves this
I've been watching paint dry because that takes less time than this deal has to go through.
