Microsoft: Call of Duty deal: Britain aims to make decision on Microsoft-Activision merger by August 29

Britain’s antitrust regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened up its probe into Microsoft‘s Activision Blizzard deal as it aims for a final decision by August 29.

The CMA also published Microsoft’s arguments explaining why the $69 billion deal should be re-evaluated, and invited comments on the new version of Microsoft’s takeover by August 4.

The regulator has previously blocked the deal – the biggest gaming in history – in April.
“Microsoft has made a series of submissions to the CMA about developments since the publication of the Report, including the acceptance by the European Commission of commitments offered by Microsoft and the agreement recently entered into between Microsoft and Sony. These submissions state that there has been a material change of circumstances since the Report or that there are otherwise special reasons for reaching a different decision on the remedies question,” the CMA said.

It is to be noted that Microsoft provided its final and consolidated submission on the matter on July 25. According to a report by news agency Reuters, a court involved in the case had already published the tech giant’s argument.
Recently, CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said that the UK regulator will carefully consider the proposals put forward by Microsoft.
“We understand from Microsoft that they would like to put forward a proposal to restructure the deal, potentially re-notifying the deal to address our competition concerns. If they do that, we will consider those restructured proposals carefully,” Cardell said.

Microsoft’s 10-year agreements
Microsoft has already announced multi-year commitments with Sony and Nintendo for bringing the Call of Duty game on their consoles and with Nvidia, Boosteroid and Ubitus to stream the game on their cloud service.
Earlier this month, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard announced that they have agreed to extend their merger agreement to October 18. Activision said that the companies agreed to increase the deal termination fee.
If the deal does not close by August 29, Activision will have to pay $3.5 billion – an increase from $3 billion earlier – to Microsoft. In case the deal is not closed before September 15 and it backs out, Activision will pay $4.5 billion to the tech giant.