The European Commission have approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This decision comes just three weeks after the deal was blocked by the European Commission due to concerns over for the cloud gaming market.
An in-depth investigation lead to approval of the Activision Blizzard acquisition according to the European Commission. The approval is “conditional on full compliance with the commitments offered by Microsoft” and represents “a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation.” However, the approval notice also notes that “even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision’s games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market.”
“Video games attract billions of users all over the world,” said Margrethe Vestager, European Commission executive vice president for competition policy. “In such a fast-growing and dynamic industry, it is crucial to protect competition and innovation. Our decision represents an important step in this direction, by bringing Activision’s popular games to many more devices and consumers than before thanks to cloud game streaming. The commitments offered by Microsoft will enable for the first time the streaming of such games in any cloud game streaming services, enhancing competition and opportunities for growth.”
An excerpt from the approval notice is available below, via the European Commission:
Commission clears acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, subject to conditions
The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard (‘Activision’) by Microsoft. The approval is conditional on full compliance with the commitments offered by Microsoft. The commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation.
Today’s decision follows an in-depth investigation of the proposed acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. As always, the Commission has based its decision on hard evidence, and on extensive information and feedback from competitors and customers, including from game developers and distributors as well as cloud game streaming platforms in the EU.
