Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition Unlikely to Close by July 18 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 July 2023 / 4,937 Views
The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal has agreed to pause Microsoft's appeal of the CMA blocking the Activision Blizzard acquisition, with some requirements being needed to be satisfied by Thursday, according to The Verge.
The UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Microsoft both greed to pause litigation in order to work out a new agreement. The CMA also extended its deadline to make its final order on Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition from July 18 to August 29.
It is looking likely Microsoft won't be able to close the Activision Blizzard acquisition by the July 18 deadline and will most likely see an extension in order to give Microsoft time to work out a new deal with the CMA.
"We’re grateful the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has conditionally agreed to pause the formal appeal process subject to additional information," reads a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson. "As we’ve said before, we are considering how the transaction might be modified to address the CMA’s concerns. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed with the CMA that this is in the best interest of finding a prompt path forward."
It was reported last week Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are considering giving up some control over cloud-gaming in the UK to appease the CMA. It is reported Microsoft might be willing to sell its cloud gaming rights in the UK to a telecommunications, gaming or internet-based computing company. One person said a private equity company might be interested.
Microsoft has seen the deal approved in Turkey, South Africa, South Korea, China, the European Union, Ukraine, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia. Microsoft also won its case against the FTC in the US, which was trying to block the deal.
Activision Blizzard stock has also been removed from the Nasdaq-100 Index in preparation for the merger to close.
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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CMA and MS just need time to work out a deal. All this comes down to.
Interesting hearing today.
It seems the CMA yet to receive the finalised proposals by MS, and while the CMA sees a way forward being the most likely scenario, they won't commit to it publicly (the deal will go through for sure, but it was an interesting back and forth).
The judge granted conditional adjournment providing that the CMA writes up the evidence that there has been a material change of circumstances to the deal that allowed them to reconsider their decision.
MS lawyers will provide the CMA with the details of the 10-year CoD deal with SONY as part of that evidence that there has been a material change of circumstances, the CMA will pass the details of the deal on to the judge along with other the changes that prove they have met conditions set out by the judge for his conditional adjournment to be granted.
The judge was "troubled" by the CMA announcement timing in relation to the FTC losses, the lawyers from both parties denied that what happened in the USA had anything to do with this change of course in the UK process. I don't know if I believe that to be honest, literally within minutes we got tweets from both sides following the FTC drama.
It seems MS preferred to settle with the CMA rather than to go ahead with the CAT appeal process because it is a) shorter b) a more certain path forward, the word "certainty" was uttered a million times. I believe "certainty" is important to reassure ABK and get them to stick to the deal beyond the deadline (18th of July).
I wondered previously what does the CMA get out of the "pause" they asked the CAT for, but listening to today's hearing, it really looks like they wanted to use MS desire for a) a shorter process b) a certain path forward to their advantage, which I think is going to be a very small one, but an advantage nonetheless? Will find out soon.
(copy pasted from my most recent post)
is this thread title because of a certain thread on the forums? :P
Would have been cool to close on the date defined, But on the bright side, they have a shot at closing on my birthday. Which of course, if it happen, would have positive reverberation all throughout the industry and beyond.
I can't wait 'till Microsoft officially acquires ABK so they can finally start making more acquisitions.
This unnecessary delay in the UK is solely due to the corruption and incessant lies of the CMA.
IF MS is trusting the CMA is any serious way, it is foolishness.
If the CMA thinks they can delay enough to force MS to pay the 3 billion fine to Activision...and consider that some kind of last minute victory, well it just proves how disgraceful they have been the whole time.
At this point, your posts are simply obnoxious. They were both asking for this. The CMA is going to approve this deal very soon and we can move on.
I'll grant you that this delay is unnecessary, and that the CMA has said a bunch of stuff that is not true. I assume that is mostly because they don't understand the gaming business though, rather than intentional lies.
As for corruption.... this looks more like incompetence to me. Same as the FTC. Basically, they all look like a bunch of bumbling fools.
It is government though, so nobody would be shocked to find out there is corruption at play. But, I haven't seen any evidence of it.
I would love to know who alt is this. Or its just another bot from microsoft.
Don't assert accounts as "bots" unless you have evidence to back it up.
Let's try to base our statements on verifiable facts rather than blatant conspiracy theories.
