The European Union Commission has postponed until April the last chance to announce the final decision on Activision Blizzard’s merger deal with Microsoft.
European regulators have announced new news regarding the timetable for decision-making sessions on Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard, thus pushing back the deadline for a decision to approve or disapprove the largest contract in the history of the video game industry by 10 days to April 25, 2023. May 5, 1402) be considered as the last chance to announce the final result. In this way, the opinion of the British Competition and Market Regulatory Authority (CMA) and the New Zealand Trade Commission will be announced on April 26 and 28 (May 6 and 8).
The European Union has not provided further details of the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard case except for this brief announcement. Unlike the European Commission, which conducts all its analysis and decisions on assigned matters behind closed doors, the CMA has so far provided a lot of information about it to the media.
Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s gaming division, recently said that the future of Xbox is not tied to the Activision Blizzard deal, and that even if the deal is blocked, Xbox will continue to operate. After giving a briefing to the European Commission in which he defended the $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the head of Xbox will continue to try to convince the organization’s officials that the deal will not harm the competitive aspect of the market. .
There is a concern that with this purchase, Microsoft will become a monopoly in the field of the supply of popular works of this company, especially the games of the Kalaf Duty series. In any case, Microsoft announced the release of this game on more platforms by signing contracts with Nintendo and Nvidia.
