ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

UK competition regulator looking into Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal

UK competition regulator looking into Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard.

That's according to a post on the organisation's website, in which it revealed that it would be taking comments on the matter until July 20th – not that long from now. The verdict on the first phase of the process – determining whether such a merger will be harmful to competition – will be given on September 1st.

"The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is considering whether it is or may be the case that this transaction, if carried into effect, will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 and, if so, whether the creation of that situation may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services," CMA wrote.

Microsoft announced in January that it intended to buy Activision Blizzard for a cool $68.7 billion. In the US, the deal is being investigated by the FTC. , meaning that the


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.