UK Will Investigate Microsoft's Purchase of Activision Blizzard

Not only in the US acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. The largest acquisition in the history of the video game industry will be investigated also by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

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The said authority encourages interested parties to submit their "comments" on the transaction. This is because the CMA is considering whether coming to fruition would qualify as a "significant acquisition" that could result in a "substantial lessening of competition" in the UK.

The authority is giving the public until July 20 to submit comments, and no later than September 1 a decision is expected to be made on whether to halt the investigation or continue it through a second phase.

The CMA's interest in Microsoft's new purchase falls out as a mere formality for now. Let's that the Redmond giant shelled out more than $68 billion to buy Activision Blizzard, more than any game publisher in history. It's hardly surprising that the British agency wants to take a closer look at such a gigantic deal in of the potential impact on competition in the market.

However, even without possible difficulties on the part of the CMA, Activision's acquisition of Blizzard has quite a few opponents. The publisher has become the target of lawsuits in connection with, among other things, alleged harassment at the company, and management's assurances of "lack of evidence" of ignoring "reported" incidents of harassment have by no means satisfied the company's critics (including the ABK Workers Alliance union, which is preparing another protest).

• Microsoft
• scandals and controversies
• Activision Blizzard
• mergers and acquisitions
• Great Britain