South Africa Unconditionally Approves Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 July 2023 / 6,425 Views
The Competition Tribunal of South Africa has now officially approved Microsoft's proposed merger of Activision Blizzard.
"The Competition Tribunal as unconditionally approved the proposed merger, which is a global transaction, whereby Anchorage Merger Sub, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation intends to acquire Activision Blizzard," reads the press release from the Competition Tribunal of South Africa.
The regulator in South Africa will issue its reasons for the approval later on.
"The acquiring group, through Microsoft, is a global technology company that provides information technology related services," the press release added. "Its gaming activities are relevant to this proposed merger. These involve the development, publishing and distribution of games for personal computers, consoles and mobile devices through Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft also publishes games developed by other game developers. It offers Xbox gaming consoles and the Surface series of personal computers.
"Activision develops games for computers, consoles and mobile devices and publishes them in most countries around the world. Activision’s most notable content is the Call of Duty series of games, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, a mobile game. As well as offering paid-for full-games, free-to-play games and in-game content, Activision offers a subscription service for players of the World of Warcraft franchise."
The deal has now been approved in 39 countries. This includes South Africa, South Korea, China, the European Union, Ukraine, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia.
In the US, Microsoft and the FTC, who is attempting to block the deal, held a hearing in late June that took several days. Judge Jaqueline Scott Corley is expected to issue her ruling in the coming days.
Microsoft's deal is facing a block in the UK, which the two companies are appealing. A case management conference attended by Microsoft and the UK regulator, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), was recently held and Justice Marcus Smith scheduled the hearings for Microsoft's appeal to start July 24 and is expected to last upwards of 10 days.
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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Another unconditional approval. More proof that the CMA & FTC are corrupt.
And more proof that the EU illegally coerced or Blackmailed MS and forced them to include illegitimate cloud conditions…..which MS were “happy” to go along with anyway.
No one in the world seriously thinks Cloud is important in in short- medium term, or that MS has a monopoly on cloud.
