Microsoft’s decision to acquire Activision-Blizzard for $69 billion continues to be reviewed by various regulatory agencies. Finally, the South Korean Fair Trade Commission officially approved Microsoft’s offer to buy. The Commission thinks that the new deal will not harm competition in the console game market.South Korea approves Microsoft-Activision deal
As you know, Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal created both excitement and fear in the gaming press. So much so that Sony stated that Call of Duty poses great dangers to the existence of Playstation. At this point, the South Korea Fair Trade Commission has decided that the new agreement will not harm competition in the console game market, due to the low market share of console games distributed by Microsoft.
It should be noted that this new decision is concurrent with the approval news from the European Commission. However, South Korea joined the European Commission, Japan (JFTC), Serbia (CPC), Brazil (CADE), Chile (FNE), Saudi Arabia (GAC), South Africa (SACC) and Ukraine (AMCU), which ratified the agreement. The only organization that has not ratified the deal so far has been the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
For those who don’t know, last April the CMA rejected the deal, stating that the Activision Blizzard acquisition would hamper competition in the cloud gaming market. However, we may see that the deal is finalized in the coming weeks, as the CMA stands alone in this regard and Microsoft is appealing the decision.
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