Microsoft Reportedly Aims to Close its Activision Blizzard Acquisition on October 13

Microsoft is reportedly getting ready to complete its $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week. According to The Verge, the company could close the deal on Friday, October 13, assuming the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority finally approves the deal before that date.

On September 22, the CMA provisionally approved Microsoft’s restructured deal, which will transfer cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. The UK regulator originally blocked the deal in April over concerns in the cloud gaming market, which is why Microsoft had to restructure the deal and agree to sell Activision Blizzard cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft over the next 15 years.

After the CMA opened the door to the deal being cleared last month, the UK is running a consultation on Microsoft’s proposed remedies that will conclude today. A final decision from the CMA is expected to be announced next week, which would then allow Microsoft to complete its Activision Blizzard acquisition on October 13.

If that doesn’t happen next week, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended their acquisition deadline to October 18. Past that date, Microsoft would need to pay a termination fee of $4.5 billion.

The $68 billion deal is Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever, and there have been a lot of twists and turns since the original announcement back in January 2022. While Microsoft signed various cloud licensing deals with Nvidia and other companies to get the green light from the European Commission, the UK’s CMA originally blocked the deal and the US FTC tried to do the same. And as of last week, the FTC is still not giving up on getting the deal blocked.