The UK blocked Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the largest acquisition in the game industry may be broken | TechNews Technology New Report

British authorities on the 26th blocked Microsoft’s US$69 billion (about NT$2.1 trillion) acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard on the grounds that it would not hurt competition in the cloud gaming industry. Now, the largest transaction case in the history of the game industry has been hit by an accident and is in danger of being broken.

Agence France-Presse reported that the US technology giant and Xbox game product developer Microsoft (Microsoft) in January last year to the US company Activision Blizzard (Activision Blizzard) Blizzard’s proposed takeover, creating the world’s third-largest game company by revenue, but also raising monopoly concerns around the world.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its final decision today after a lengthy investigation, saying it blocked the deal “out of concern … that the rapidly growing cloud gaming market would be disrupted in the future. change, less innovation and less choice for UK gamers within a few years.”

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority also pointed out that Microsoft’s proposed remedy, a promise to open up the licensing of Call of Duty to other major cloud-based gaming platforms, was not enough to quell concerns, Reuters reported.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said Microsoft’s proposal had “significant shortcomings” and that further regulation would have to be taken by the authority, not by the market. “Blocking mergers and acquisitions is actually allowing market forces to continue to operate and shape the development of cloud games without regulatory interference.”

Microsoft said in a statement that it will still do its best to reach an acquisition and appeal the decision. Activision Blizzard also stated that it will actively cooperate with Microsoft to overturn the decision of the British authorities. However, in the pre-market trading of the US stock market today, Activision Blizzard’s stock price fell more than 10% in response.

European authorities will decide on May 22. The FTC also sought to block the deal.

(Translator: Zhang Zhengqian; Source of the first image:Microsoft）

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