CMA Gives Public Four Days to Comment on Activision Blizzard Acquisition

After publishing Microsoft’s list of “material changes” in the ongoing Activision Blizzard drama on Monday, The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is giving the public just four days to provide it with feedback, yet another sign that the regulatory body will reverse course and OK the acquisition.

“Microsoft has submitted a document detailing why it believes there are material changes of circumstance and/or special reasons why the CMA should not impose a final order to prohibit the merger,” a CMA statement notes. “Submissions of this nature are possible but are very rare. We will consider Microsoft’s submissions carefully, along with other responses from interested parties, ahead of the 29 August statutory deadline.”

As you may have seen in my analysis piece yesterday, Microsoft surprised some onlookers by not offering the CMA additional concessions to convince the agency to reconsider its original decision to block the acquisition. Instead, the software giant relied on “new evidence,” largely obtained during last month’s court hearings against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), to press its case. The idea here is that there is information of which the CMA was allegedly not aware at the time of its original decision, and that had it know about this information, its decision would have been different. Yes, that’s a face-saving stretch, as I wrote yesterday. But it does give the CMA some wiggle room in which it can emerge from this mistake of its own making with some shred of dignity intact.

It is quite rare for the CMA to reverse what it called a “final decision.” But this backtracking is legally allowed by a provision of its Enterprise Act that allows for a “material change in circumstances” to trigger a do-over. And that explains Microsoft’s continued use of the term “material change(s)” in its filing with the CMA.

The UK public—including PlayStation gamers and Microsoft’s rivals—previously expressed support for the Activision Blizzard acquisition. And given the improvements to the deal since then, which will ensure that key Activision Blizzard games are made available on rival consoles and streaming services, it’s likely that they’re even more enthusiastic about it now. What’s unclear is where one might provide feedback, but the CMA’s website for the acquisition inquiry can be found here.