Microsoft is free to close the Activision Blizzard acquisition as of May 22, with some notable caveats that will likely prevent it from actually attempting to do so for a while yet. This landmark date for the company's efforts to purchase the Call of Duty maker arrives shortly after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition won approval from China.
Prior to Beijing's clearance, the $68.7 billion deal has already been given the nod by Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Serbia, Chile, Japan, South Africa, Ukraine, and the EU, among several other countries. And while the proposed consolidation is still being probed by Australia and New Zealand, its biggest remaining regulatory challenges lie elsewhere. One of them originates from the home country, where the FTC sued to block Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition in December 2022.
Another stateside attempt to block the acquisition materialized in the form of a so-called "gamer lawsuit" against Microsoft. Following its December filing, the complaint was dismissed by a first-instance court back in March, leaving the plaintiffs with a 20-day opening to submit a revised lawsuit, which they did. The complainants also filed for a preliminary injunction to block the deal afterward, which was denied on May 19. But prior to that, Microsoft had agreed to not attempt closing the deal before May 22 in order to provide the court with enough time to rule on the injunction motion.
This was the only remaining deferment commitment that the company made. Since that deadline has passed, Microsoft is now able to initiate closing proceedings on the deal for the first time since announcing the acquisition in January 2022, not least because neither the gamer lawsuit nor the pending trial with the FTC resulted in a successful injunction motion against the deal. But although Microsoft could complete the Activision Blizzard acquisition without FTC approval, theoretically at least, the tech giant is still unlikely to attempt doing so.
The main reason for that lies across the pond, where the British Competition and Markets Authority blocked the deal in late April. According to the CMA's preliminary findings, buying Activision Blizzard would potentially give Microsoft's Xbox division too much power in the fledgling cloud gaming space. Instead of committing resources toward indefinitely policing Microsoft's post-acquisition moves in this nascent industry, the regulator decided that rejecting the deal was an easier way to protect competition in the cloud gaming sector.
Microsoft is hence unlikely to attempt closing the deal while the CMA's decision still stands. That's largely because the only feasible way to actually complete the transaction without the CMA's approval would be for Microsoft's gaming division to pull out of the UK, or at the very least stop offering cloud gaming services in the country. The company has so far given no indication that it's willing to commit to such a sacrifice in order to push the deal over the finish line. Since the CMA's findings are still preliminary, the window for Microsoft to appeal the decision hasn't even opened yet.
Source: FOSS Patents