Microsoft will have two additional months to try to appease British regulators and get its acquisition of Activision Blizzard over the line. The news came on Tuesday, the same day the proposed takeover was scheduled to close.
Back in early 2022, Microsoft agreed to pay $69 billion for Activision but almost instantly met with resistance from regulators in the U.S. and Great Britain. Both U.S. Federal Trade Commission and British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressed concerns about the deal’s impact on the competition in the industry.
Microsoft won its case against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which sought to halt the deal, earlier this month and was set to have an appeal hearing in the case with CMA over the matter later this month. However, Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ended up affording both Microsoft and CMA extra time to try and get to an agreement.
Prior to the CAT’s decision, Microsoft submitted a modified proposal, and CMA expressed willingness to review it.
“Based upon the discussion to date, both sides – Microsoft and the CMA – have confidence that Microsoft notifying a restructured transaction is capable of addressing the concerns that the CMA has identified,” CMA’s lawyer David Bailey said in a statement.