After over a year of lobbying and debating, the UK Competition and Markets Authority has blocked Microsoft's attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard, saying that the deal would give Microsoft too strong a position in the cloud gaming market "just as it begins to grow rapidly." Microsoft isn't giving up, but this isn't just an everyday regulatory hurdle: The deal "very well may be" dead, according to Bloomberg senior antitrust litigation analyst Jennifer Rie.
Rie speculates that overturning the CMA's decision could take "years" and that the deal isn't likely to hold together for that long. The acquisition has already been 15 months in the making, and even if not by multiple years as Rie predicts, the purchase agreement's July deadline will likely need to be extended. Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said on Twitter that he doesn't expect the CMA appeal to conclude within the year.
