Trending: Microsoft's Activision Deal Cleared by UK Regulators
October 13 2023 - 6:22AM
Dow Jones News
0952 GMT - The clearance of Microsoft's $75 billion takeover of
Activision Blizzard by U.K. regulators is among the most mentioned
topics across news items over the past four hours, according to
Factiva data. The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA,
said Friday its concerns over the threat to competition posed by
the deal were resolved by Microsoft's sale of cloud-streaming
rights for Activision's videogames roster--including hit franchises
"Call of Duty," "Candy Crush" and more--to rival company Ubisoft
Entertainment. The CMA had provisionally cleared the deal last
month. Microsoft said it was "grateful" for the CMA's decision,
while Activision said the official approval was great news for its
future with Microsoft. The U.S. tech giant first announced its plan
to buy Activision in January 2022 and valued the deal at $69
billion after adjusting for the videogame publisher's net cash, and
both companies had set an extended deadline of Oct. 18 for
completing the merger. "If this genuinely protects consumers then
the CMA deserves some credit for holding the line under
considerable pressure from a multi-trillion-dollar business," AJ
Bell investment director Russ Mould says in a market comment. Dow
Jones & Co. owns Factiva. (joseph.hoppe@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 13, 2023 06:07 ET (10:07 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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