UK CMA Extends Deadline for its Review of Microsoft’s Activision Deal

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is extending the deadline for its final decision on Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal by six weeks. The UK regulator was originally planning to announce its decision on July 18, but after reopening negotiations with Microsoft this week, the CMA will be giving itself until August 29 to examine Microsoft’s solutions.

The CMA originally blocked the deal in April over concerns about Microsoft dominating the cloud gaming market. Microsoft has since signed various cloud licensing deals with Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus, and UK carrier EE to make its games and those from Activision Blizzard available on more services than ever. But that still wasn’t good enough for the CMA.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Microsoft is considering selling UK cloud gaming rights to a telecommunications, gaming or Internet-based computing company to appease the CMA’s concerns. The report says that a private equity company may also be interested.

Earlier this week, CNBC also reported that “Microsoft offered the CMA a small and discrete divestiture that the company hopes will address the regulator’s concerns,” though the report didn’t mention what Microsoft could be possibly selling. While the FTC’s latest efforts in the US to block the deal have been unsuccessful so far, the UK’s CMA appears to be the last obstacle.