MOSCOW, May 15. The European Commission has approved a $69 billion acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, according to a press release.
«The European Commission, in accordance with the EU Merger Regulation, has approved the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. The condition of approval is the full implementation of the obligations proposed by Microsoft,» the message says.
Microsoft has committed to providing a free license to consumers in the European Economic Area that will allow them to access all existing and future Activision Blizzard games through any cloud gaming platform that has a license for those games. The company will also issue a free permission for the respective platforms to provide access to the developer's games. This will allow users who have previously purchased Blizzard games to play them from any device.
In January 2022, Microsoft entered into a deal to buy Activision for $68.7 billion. The UK Competition and Markets Authority began reviewing the deal in September 2022. In February 2022, the agency announced that this deal could further strengthen Microsoft's position in the still developing cloud gaming market. On Wednesday, April 26, the regulator decided to block the deal. Microsoft's president tweeted that the company intends to challenge the decision.
American company Microsoft Corp was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The headquarters is located in Redmond, Washington. The company specializes in software development, in particular, Microsoft is the developer of the Windows operating system.
Activision Blizzard owns popular video game franchises such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch, StarCraft, Diablo, Call of Duty and many more.