The Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Commission announced the approval of Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Ukrainian regulators said that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard do not provide cloud gaming services in Ukraine. Therefore, the concerns expressed by the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the reasons for the prohibition centered on the UK are not relevant to assessing their impact on competition in the Ukrainian market.
This also means that Ukraine has become the seventh country to approve the acquisition of Activision Blizzard after Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and South Africa.
This week, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it decided to block the deal due to concerns it would “alter the future of the cloud gaming market, resulting in less innovation and less choice”. At present, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have confirmed that they will appeal the ruling. The former called the ruling “unfavorable to the UK” and the latter called it “irrational”.
Neither company offers cloud gaming services in Ukraine, so the country’s competition watchdog won’t take that into account.
This Friday, Microsoft announced that it has signed a 10-year agreement with Spanish cloud gaming platform Nware to provide Xbox PC games and Activision Blizzard games to more platforms after the acquisition is completed, aiming to ease the regulatory agency’s acquisition of Activision. Blizzard worries.
