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China approves Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal

China approves Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal

China's regulatory body has apparently approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

That's according to South China Morning Post, which reports that the Xbox giant says the country's State Administration for Market Regulation has given the deal the nod with no further conditions. This came in the wake of a Phase 3 investigation into the acquisition.

China joins the likes of Ukraine, Brazil, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa in giving the nod to the $68.7 billion deal. The European Union announced last week that it had approved the acquisition.

Now Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have two big regulators to get round – the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, which blocked the deal earlier in the month, and the United States' Federal Trade Commission, which has sued to block the deal.


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.