South Africa: Announced Competition Commission approval of Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard

On 11 April 2023, the Competition Commission of South Africa (CCSA) concluded its investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The CCSA approved the acquisition without requiring commitments from the parties. In particular, the CCSA noted that the acquisition would not restrain competition in the relevant markets, namely game development and publishing service for the game console and personal computer market. Activision Blizzard and Microsoft are both developers and publishers of online games, and in its investigation, CCSA investigated whether Microsoft would be able to restrict the distribution of Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty to its console or make it available based on terms that would have excluded other console manufacturers from competing.