The European Commission will reportedly approve Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week.
That’s according toReuterssources, who claim May 15 is the likeliest date that EU antitrust regulators will announce the decision.
The European Commission has confirmed plans topublish its verdict by May 22, and it has previously been claimed thatMicrosoft’s willingness to offer game licensing deals to rivalsis likely to address its antitrust concerns.
Last month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it waspreventing the dealdue to concerns about its impact on the future of the cloud gaming market.
Microsoft andActivisionquickly confirmed their intention to appeal the CMA’s ruling, which the former hascalled “bad for Britain”and thelatter has labelled “irrational”.
Microsoft has reportedly hired a lawyer known for repeatedly defeating the EU regulator in competition casesto lead its appeal against the CMA’s decision.
The Telegraph(viaYahoo Finance) reported last week that the company had appointed Daniel Beard KC and planned to lodge an appeal at the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal in a matter of days.
Further reading
In December, the US Federal Trade Commissionannounced it was suing in a bid to blockMicrosoft’s acquisition ofActivision Blizzardover antitrust concerns.
The controversial merger has so far been approved in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Serbia, Chile, Japan, South Africa and Ukraine.
