Microsoft is one step away from buying Activision Blizzard

One of the regulators most opposed to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard was the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), an entity that quite surprised us today as recognized that this purchase operation would not affect free competition in the game console and video console market and granted provisional approval to this operation.

This is an interim approval because, according to the CMA, it wants to continue to investigate the potential impact that the purchase of Activision Blizzard would have on the cloud gaming sector, and therefore will not offer a final assessment until April 26. In less than a month, the future of this purchasing operation will be decided.

Where does that leave us? Well in a very favorable situation for Microsoft, that it has changed from almost all to being almost all for, as both the CMA and the European Union have shown a more favorable attitude towards said operation, and barring a surprise, everything seems to indicate that both will give the Redmond giant the go-ahead.

If you’re wondering what happened to make the CMA change their mind so drastically, the answer is simple, they concluded that making the Call of Duty franchise exclusive to Xbox would hurt Microsoft. , because the said saga you would lose huge market share and not generate the same revenue. It made sense from the start and for them to realize it now shows they don’t know the market they are regulating.

As for Activision Blizzard, the group has been in favor of Microsoft’s purchase operation from the beginning and has done the same with this interim CMA verdict. Everything is not done yet, there are some obstacles ahead of us, but there is no doubt about that turned 180 degrees, because we’ve gone from a scenario where Microsoft faced near-universal rejection to one where it could be less than a month away from receiving final approval from Europe and the UK.

We must also consider that the approval of both could have a significant impact on and shape the decision-making of other regulatory bodies a sort of “snowball” effect that eventually paves the way for the Redmond giant. Personally, today it is clearer than ever that Activision Blizzard will end up in the hands of Microsoft, given the current scenario, I think it is one step away from achieving it, and that this step will be completed next April, barring a surprise.