Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s revised US$69 billion deal to buy video games maker Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) has been given the green light by the UK competition watchdog.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had blocked the original proposed takeover in April, but last month issued a more favourable opinion after the Redmond, Washington-based company proposed tweaks to the terms of the deal along with some further “remedies” to overcome other objections.
This morning, the regulator said its final investigation had been completed of what it called a “narrower transaction”, with the deal including a concession that will see Ubisoft, instead of the US company, buy the rights to Activision’s existing games – such as its massive Call of Duty and Candy Crush franchises – stored in the cloud and any produced over the next 15 years.
“The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,” the CMA said.
As Ubisoft will offer Activision’s content, this will “help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency”, it added.
CMA chief Sarah Cardell said: “We take our decisions free from political influence and we won’t be swayed by corporate lobbying.
“We delivered a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and stuck to our guns on that.”
She said the new terms mean Microsoft “can’t have a stranglehold over this important and rapidly developing market” and will “ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice”.
Cardell also issued a warning that “businesses and their advisors should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA” as the company “had the chance to restructure during our initial investigation but instead continued to insist on a package of measures that we told them simply wouldn’t work”.
“Dragging out proceedings in this way only wastes time and money.”