United Kingdom: Approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the UK
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Approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the UK
On 13 October 2023, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision with the exclusion of Activision’s cloud streaming rights outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). The approval was granted after Microsoft presented the CMA with a restructured deal agreeing that cloud streaming rights to all current and future Activision games released during the next 15 years would be divested to independent Ubisoft Entertainment SA instead of to Microsoft. This will prevent the distribution of popular content, including games such as Call of Duty, from coming under the control of Microsoft in relation to cloud gaming, thus allowing competition in the cloud gaming market, preserving competitive prices for cloud gaming customers, and ensuring that cloud gaming providers are able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content.
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