Microsoft has closed its agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard. Its total amounted to 68.7 billion dollars: it became the largest video game market in history. The last obstacle to the merger was the UK regulator, but today it gave the green light to the deal.
Microsoft has closed its agreement to acquire the video game maker Activision Blizzard. This was reported by Reuters, and Xbox head Phil Spencer also wrote a statement about the deal.
“As a team, we will learn, innovate and continue to deliver on our promise to bring joy to the gaming community and more people,” Spencer said.
The deal amounted to $68.7 billion and became the largest in video game history.
Microsoft announced the purchase of Activision Blizzard back in January 2022. Antitrust regulators in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom hindered the success of the deal. They attempted to block the deal, citing Microsoft’s dominant position in the video game market if it merged with Activision.
After lengthy discussions and disputes, EU and US regulators approved the deal. The last one that refused to give it the green light was the British regulator, but on Friday, October 13, it approved the merger.
The London condition was that Microsoft agree to sell the cloud rights to Activision Blizzard games to the French company Ubisoft Entertainment. Microsoft finally made concessions and received the British nod.
Author:
Kirill Bilyk
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
