In Britain, Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal with video game developer Activision Blizzard was blocked
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The Competition and Markets Authority of Great Britain (CMA) has blocked the agreement of the American company Microsoft to buy the developer of video games Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This was reported by the press service of the regulator.
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According to the British regulator, Microsoft can make Activision games exclusive to its cloud game platform Xbox Game Pass, ending their possible distribution to other key players in the industry.
Microsoft and Activision said they would file an appeal.
“The CMA report contradicts the ambitions of Great Britain to become an attractive country for creating a technology business. We will actively cooperate with Microsoft to reverse this decision during the appeal,” said a representative of Activision.
In order for the agreement to be approved, it must be approved by the regulatory authorities of Great Britain, the United States and the European Union.
Activision Blizzard and its studios are known for the development of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush and Overwatch game series. After the deal is completed, Microsoft will become the third largest company in the gaming sector by revenue, after China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony.
Falling Activision shares
After the decision of the British regulator, Activision Blizzard shares fell by more than 11%. At the same time, Microsoft shares, by contrast, rose by 7%, but this was largely due to the company’s strong quarterly report.
Cloud games
The CMA noted that the British market for cloud games is growing rapidly. The monthly number of active users in the UK by the end of 2022 has more than tripled since the beginning of 2021.
It is expected that by 2026 its value will reach 11 billion pounds sterling worldwide and 1 billion pounds sterling in Great Britain. For comparison, music sales in Great Britain in 2021 amounted to £1.1 billion.
“Microsoft Corporation has a strong position in cloud gaming services, and the evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft considers it commercially beneficial to make Activision games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service,” the CMA said.
The CMA also noted that Microsoft already accounts for about 60-70% of the world’s cloud gaming services. In addition, the company has other important advantages in cloud games thanks to the possession of Xbox, the leading operating system for PCs (Windows) and the global infrastructure of cloud computing (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming).
Author: 
News editor Roman Myronchuk writes on the following topics: Economy, finance, banks, cryptocurrencies, investments, technologies
Source: Ministry of Finance
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