To Negotiate With The British Regulator, Microsoft And Activision May Agree To Abandon Part Of The Cloud Business
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are considering partly relinquishing control of the UK cloud gaming business to appease local regulators and get clearance for the merger.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard still believe they can close the deal before the deadline, which expires next week. This was facilitated by the victory of the two companies in an American court – the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tried to disrupt the merger. Microsoft has resumed negotiations with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), with the agency saying that companies will have to submit a new application to reconsider the issue. An additional obstacle may be the FTC’s petition filed the day before for a temporary ban on closing the deal while the commission submits an application to appeal the US court decision. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley banned the deal from closing until 11:59 pm on July 14th.
In its previous decision, the British regulator expressed concern that Activision’s new Microsoft xCloud content would limit competition in the cloud gaming platform market – access to xCloud is offered in a monthly subscription format.
