Microsoft has eyes on closing the acquisition that will bring Activision Blizzard to the Xbox family. The acquisition has now been approved in 41 countries with Commerce Commission in New Zealand giving clearance for Microsoft.
“In reaching its decision, the Commission focused on the importance of Activision games (such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft) to New Zealand gamers, and whether Microsoft would be likely to stop rivals like Sony and NVIDIA from offering those games on consoles and on cloud platforms.”
“While Activision games, in particular Call of Duty, are popular with New Zealand gamers, our enquiries did not find that they are likely to be ‘must have’ in order to compete with Microsoft in New Zealand.”
Microsoft President, Brad Smith made a statement on Twitter saying they will continue to work to resolve the concerns and bring this deal to a close.
“With today’s approval from New Zealand, we’re cleared to move forward with our acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 41 countries. We will continue to work to resolve outstanding concerns and bring this deal to a close”
Deadline extensions for the Activision Blizzard merger were greenlit as Microsoft & U.K. CMA dispute. The concern the CMA has over the acquisition is the competition for Cloud Gaming. Microsoft recently won the fight against the FTC and can close the deal in the United States.
