There are still a few more scenes to play out in the tangled regulatory saga of Microsoft’s attempt to buy the Call of Duty creator, Activision Blizzard, for $69bn (£53bn) but, for the first time in months, one can probably say this: the deal is more likely to proceed than not.
Look at what’s happened since the UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, said no in April. First, the European Commission rolled over when it accepted Microsoft’s proposed remedies and cleared the transaction. Then the Federal Trade Commission in the US, which was minded to fight the deal, was blocked in court last week from gaining an injunction to halt it. Now Sony, the main corporate opponent of the transaction, appears to have concluded that continued resistance is futile: it has agreed a licensing deal with Microsoft covering Call of Duty.
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