Microsoft’s acquisition of game publisher Activision Blizzard faces antitrust scrutiny in the U.K., where competition regulators said Wednesday they’ve opened an initial inquiry into the $69 billion deal.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has started
looking into whether the tie-up would result “in a substantial lessening of
competition” in the United Kingdom.
The U.S. tech giant announced in January that it was buying
Activision Blizzard in a deal that would make it a bigger video game company
than Nintendo but raised questions about its anti-competitive effects.
Microsoft makes the Xbox gaming system while Activision has
created or acquired popular video games including Guitar Hero and the World of
Warcraft franchise.
Microsoft said it expected the scrutiny and thought it
appropriate for regulators to take a closer look at the deal.
“We have been clear about how we plan to run our gaming
business and why we believe the deal will benefit gamers, developers, and the
industry,” Microsoft’s corporate vice president and general counsel, Liz Tanzi,
said in a prepared statement. “We’re committed to answering questions from
regulators and ultimately believe a thorough review will help the deal close with
broad confidence, and that it will be positive for competition.”
The U.K. watchdog will seek feedback on the acquisition from
interested parties until July 20 and decide by Sept. 1 whether to escalate its
investigation.
Tanzi said the company is confident the deal will close as
expected in its 2023 fiscal year, which started in July.
The Competition and Markets Authority has a track record of
scrutinizing, and sometimes preventing, big tech mergers and acquisitions.
The watchdog cleared Microsoft’s $16 billion deal to buy speech recognition company Nuance but blocked Facebook’s acquisition of the GIF-sharing platform Giphy and ordered the deal unwound, saying it hurt social media users and advertisers by stifling competition for animated images.
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