Microsofts proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard has been approved by EU regulators, weeks after the UK's CMA rejected the bid.
Mere weeks after the CMA rejected the Microsoft Activision deal, the European Commission has announced that it has approved Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion buyout of the Activision Blizzard, via a statement on its website, as the tech giant's CMA appeal looms. The EU Commission's findings state that "even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision’s games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market" even though they found that Microsoft "would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision's games to Sony".
Despite the approval of the deal, the EU shared concerns held by the CMA that the deal "could harm competition in the distribution of games via cloud game streaming services". However, the report also went on to say "Despite its potential, cloud game streaming is very limited today. The Commission found that the popularity of Activision's games could promote its growth" treating the CMA's cloud gaming angle as a double-edged sword.
