Citing sources close to the matter, Reuters has reported that Microsoft’s $69 billion bid to acquire Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard is likely to result in an EU antitrust warning, marking another obstacle to the completion of the merger.
Microsoft faces another challenge because of its acquisition of Activision. The EU must file an indictment and object to the merger over antitrust issues.
The European Commission is preparing to send Microsoft an indictment outlining its objections to the agreement, also known as the Statement of Objections, the sources told Reuters.
The EU antitrust authority, which had until April 11 to make a judgment on the transaction, did not want to comment.
From Microsoft: “We continue to work with the European Commission to address any market concerns. We want to make more games available to more people, and this agreement will help us do that.”
In order to better compete with market giants Tencent and Sony, the American software giant and maker of the Xbox announced the acquisition in January last year.
Regulators in the US and UK have objected, and the US Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to stop the merger.
According to others with knowledge of the situation who spoke to Reuters in November, Microsoft was expected to offer EU authorities solutions to avoid indictment and speed up the regulatory process.
Despite ongoing informal talks about concessions, the people said the EU competition authority is unlikely to be open to appeal before releasing its indictment.
Microsoft said it was open to a similar deal with Sony, which is declining the purchase, when it announced last month that it had struck a 10-year deal with Nintendo to make Call of Duty accessible on Nintendo devices do.
Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Serbia have unreservedly approved the transaction.
This article was previously published on Source link
