Microsoft urges UK regulator to reverse block of Activision Blizzard deal

Microsoft has submitted a material changes of circumstances document to the UK’s regulator which stands opposed to its $68.7bn Activision Blizzard acquisition, urging it to drop its block of the deal.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority previously ruled that the deal would not be allowed to go ahead back in April, citing concerns on Microsoft’s current, and potentially future, dominance in cloud gaming.

Despite that setback, Microsoft has continued to sign deals with other companies and took on the US Federal Trade Commission in court (and won), leaving the UK’s stance to the deal looking increasingly isolated. And it’s these fresh commitments, Microsoft says, which should now be considered by the CMA. Had the CMA made its original decision with these in mind, Microsoft now says, the CMA would have ruled differently.

Microsoft cited its 10-year agreement with cloud gaming platform Nware, which was signed just days after the CMA’s decision. Microsoft claimed the CMA was unable to “take into account” its deal with Nware, as well as other cloud agreements with Nvidia, Boosteroid, and Ubitus, which it noted were accepted by the EU’s investigation of the acquisition.