Tech giant Microsoft’s planned $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard has received unconditional approval from China’s antitrust authorities, a Dealreporter report said, after a Microsoft spokesperson also confirmed to IGN that the deal has been approved by China’s State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration.
Microsoft said: “The acquisition of Activision Blizzard has now been approved in 37 countries, including 27 in the European Union and 10 others, including China, Japan and Brazil, covering more than 2 billion people. This acquisition, combined with our recent commitment to the European Commission, will enable consumers worldwide to play more games on more devices.”
While Microsoft has received approval in each country, it has yet to convince the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Microsoft also got the green light from European Union (EU) regulators not long ago, but it came with some conditions. The EU regulator said the deal itself would not reduce competition in the console market but could affect the cloud gaming sector for years to come. “The European Commission requires Microsoft to automatically license Activision Blizzard’s popular games to rival cloud gaming services. This will apply globally and will enable millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device of their choice,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement. Microsoft offers the solution through exclusive agreements with various cloud gaming platforms, giving the latter a royalty-free license for Activision games. While the CMA believes this proposal will not solve the problem, the European Commission agrees that it will increase competition in the market.
Sony, Microsoft’s only competitor in the console market, strongly opposes the deal, claiming that the company plans to make Activision games exclusive to Xbox and PC and harm the competitive nature of the market. Microsoft, on the other hand, claimed that making the games exclusive would only bring losses to the company. The FTC is still investigating the deal, with a hearing scheduled for Aug. 2. For the UK market, Microsoft plans to appeal the decision.
