Since Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, the publisher of Call of Duty and Overwatch, for $68.7 billion, it’s been grappling with legislators around the world to gain permission to close that deal.
Recently, the company has faced scrutiny from the American Federal Trade Commission in court, with the proceedings having revealed some interesting behind-the-scenes information about Microsoft’s relationship with Activision and past acquisition targets, as well as PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan’s thoughts on Starfield’s exclusivity.
Now, following a ruling in Microsoft’s favour after five days of testimony, and the announcement of a new deal between it and Sony over Call of Duty, the company and the UK’s CMA have been granted more time to come to an agreement regarding the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Microsoft and CMA provisionally granted more time to negotiate over cloud gaming element of Activision Blizzard deal
As reported by Reuters, at a Competition Appeal Tribunal case management conference yesterday, Microsoft and the UK regulator, which blocked the deal back in April, were provisionally granted a two month pause to Microsoft’s appeal of the block, in order to facilitate more negotiations between the two parties.
This outcome, which comes following a joint submission from Microsoft, Activision, and the CMA requesting it from the tribunal, will allow them more time to potentially come to an agreement regarding how the deal will affect cloud gaming, something which was cited as a concern by CMA when it blocked the deal.
As outlined by the Tribunal’s Judge, Marcus Smith, the proposed adjournment of a hearing on the appeal, which was originally set to take place on July 28, still depends on the CMA setting out why there has been a change in circumstances that justifies the adjournment application and making any new consultation process clear.
Due to this development, the CMA has extended the date of its final order from July 18 to August 29, with Bloomberg reporting that Microsoft and Activision are also likely to extend their deadline for the deal past July 18, the date set out in the original agreement over the acquisition between the two parties.
Regardless of what you think of this titanic legal tussle, make sure to check out the rest of our coverage of it, as well as our array of guides to the latest developments in Call of Duty Warzone and Modern Warfare 2, with Season 4 Reloaded having recently kicked off.