Reuters: European Commission likely to approve deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard

Reuters, citing its own sources informsthat EU antitrust authorities intend to approve a potential deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard worth $69 billion. A final decision should be made as early as next week, probably May 15th.

However, the text of the article indicates that the information from the sources was received in March 2023, and it looks outdated. As you may remember, at the end of April, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked a deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, believing that it could negatively affect competition in the nascent cloud gaming market.

Of course, the European Commission will take into account the position of the CMA and the FTC, and it is possible that it will make a similar decision. At the moment, the situation does not look encouraging for Microsoft. Of course, the company will file appeals, but it will be extremely difficult to challenge the decision of three regulators at once.

We also recall that before the publication of the CMA decision, rumors appeared on the network that the regulator was going to approve a deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. A few hours later, it became clear that this information turned out to be false, and the decision turned out to be completely opposite.