Since January 2022, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Activision Blizzard, the developer of "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft" and other games, for $95 per share, for a total price of $68.7 billion, due to the huge amount of the transaction and the involvement of multinational interests, the two sides have been running and clearing the final deal to promote this sky-high transaction.

After much scrutiny and haggling, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which had repeatedly raised objections to the deal, finally relented on what would be the biggest merger in gaming history.
Recently, the CMA issued a press release on the British government's official website, saying that because Microsoft has largely responded to and resolved the CMA's concerns that it may monopolize the global cloud gaming market during the consultation process, the CMA has held a separate discussion according to the "remedy" proposed by Microsoft, which is expected to end on October 6.
In July, due to missing the original transaction deadline (July 18), Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to extend the merger agreement to October 18 after negotiation to wait for the results of negotiations between Microsoft and the CMA.
It is worth mentioning that the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also repeatedly raised objections to the acquisition, but from the judgment of the local government in the United States, the FTC's opinion can no longer influence the outcome of the acquisition.
This also means that when the CMA's discussions and inquiries are officially completed on October 6, if there are no other unexpected circumstances, the merger of the century will have a great chance to be successfully completed before October 18.
In order to get approval, Microsoft ceded the Blizzard cloud gaming business
From the overall process of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the CMA's opposition is undoubtedly one of the biggest obstacles. According to the disclosure, in order to convince the CMA to release the acquisition, Microsoft chose to "cut off an arm."
Overall, the CMA's main objections to the completion of the acquisition revolve around Microsoft's cloud gaming business. According to the CMA, Microsoft's cloud gaming business accounts for 60% to 70% of global cloud gaming services. For this reason, the CMA has been concerned that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard will accelerate the monopoly and change the rapid growth of the cloud gaming market, resulting in fewer options for UK gamers.
Previously, a game industry person who has long paid attention to the Microsoft merger and acquisition case pointed out to the 21st Century Economic reporter that for the merger and acquisition of large technology companies, the CMA has always been known for strict and high authority in the UK. "If the CMA firmly rejects the Microsoft Blizzard deal, the next issue for Microsoft will be very difficult." 'he said.
Obviously, afraid of the CMA's firm opposition, but also to dispel the CMA's doubts about cloud games, Microsoft eventually took a "head to head, foot to foot" approach, promising that it will not buy Activision Blizzard's cloud game copyright (including new games), but will before the acquisition is officially completed. It will be sold to Ubisoft, an independent third-party game company. At the same time, Ubisoft can provide cloud game versions of Activision Blizzard's products directly to all consumers and cloud game service providers.
In addition, the new agreement also stipulates that Microsoft will port Activision games to operating systems other than Windows and support game emulators upon request to make up for the shortcomings of previous remedies.
This means that even after the acquisition is completed, Microsoft will not have the rights to control Activision Blizzard's cloud game business, and it will not be able to prevent competitors such as SONY and Epic Games from putting cloud game versions of Activision Blizzard's products such as "Call of Duty" on their own game stores.
The CMA called Microsoft's climbdown an "important change." "The CMA's position has been consistent throughout - this merger can only go ahead if competition, innovation and choice in cloud gaming are preserved. In response to our initial injunction, Microsoft has now substantially adjusted the transaction, taking the necessary steps to address our initial concerns." Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA.
However, she also believes that Microsoft's compromise is "long overdue." "It would have been much better if Microsoft had proposed this restructuring during our initial investigation."
In addition, before the formal approval of the acquisition, the CMA has also held a separate discussion meeting on September 22 to collect third-party feedback on Microsoft's proposed remedies, with a deadline of October 6.
The FTC failed in two rounds of litigation
After the CMA released a positive signal, Microsoft Vice chairman and President Brad Smith also responded optimistically on social media, saying that he believes that Microsoft's proposal can fully solve the CMA's problems related to cloud games. "We will also continue our efforts to obtain approvals in order to complete the transaction with Activision Blizzard prior to the October 18 transaction deadline." "He said.
However, in addition to the CMA, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has another "opponent", that is, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
In December 2022, the FTC announced that it filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, because after its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it may prevent Activision Blizzard's games from entering competitors' platforms through abnormal means, "which will harm the competitive landscape of the world game market."
In June 2023, the FTC and Microsoft launched a five-day war of words in court, but in the end, the FTC's claim was not recognized by the U.S. District Court. On July 11, the federal court in San Francisco denied the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In its published ruling, the court said the FTC did not raise "serious questions" about whether a future merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard would substantially reduce competition in markets such as game consoles, subscription services and cloud gaming.
"Contrary to the FTC's claims, there is more documented evidence that Call of Duty and other Activision services will be available to more consumers [after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard]." The judgment notes.
A day later, the FTC appealed again, and it was officially rejected on July 14, which was also regarded as a landmark event that Microsoft finally won the antitrust lawsuit.
Shanghai Dabang Law Firm senior partner, lawyer You Yunting in an interview with 21 reporters pointed out that the review of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard transaction should return to the anti-monopoly law itself, from the current overall situation of the game industry, the deal does not affect competition and innovation. "So given Microsoft's commitment, normal administrative approval or judicial review should go through the deal." 'he said.