EU Approves Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

The European Commission has just approved Microsoft’s $68 billion of Activision Blizzard. The antitrust regulator did so after Microsoft successfully addressed its concerns regarding competition in the video games industry.

While Microsoft did need the EU to greenlight the deal to complete the acquisition, this decision comes just a month after the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) chose to block the acquisition over concerns about Microsoft possibly dominating the cloud gaming market.

After Microsoft signed 10-year cloud licensing deals with Boosteroid, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Ubitus, the EU Commission came to a different conclusion. EU regulators acknowledged the obvious, which is that Microsoft’s remedies to the EU’s concerns regarding the distribution of PC and console games via cloud gaming services will make Activision Blizzard games available to more players.

“Taking into consideration the feedback of the market, the Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns and would ultimately unlock significant benefits for competition and consumers. The Commission’s decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments. Under supervision of the Commission, an independent trustee will be in charge of monitoring their implementation,” the EU Commission said in a press release.

Microsoft President Brad Smith also emphasized that Microsoft accepted a requirement from the EU to automatically license popular Activision Blizzard games to competing cloud gaming services. “This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose,” the exec said.

Overall, the EU giving the deal the thumbs up should help to make Microsoft better positioned to negotiate with the UK’s CMA and the US Federal Trade Commission, which has sued Microsoft to block the deal. However, there’s still no guarantee that Microsoft appealing the CMA’s decision will work, and the legal battle with the FTC in the US could also take some time.

So far, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal has already been approved by regulators in Brazil, Chile, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, and the EU. The deal remains the most expensive video acquisition ever, as well as the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. Speaking on the Kinda Funny Xcast podcast earlier this month, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that the Activision Blizzard acquisition “is not our strategy, but it is an accelerant for our strategy.”