Deals
EU’s Microsoft-Activision Deadline Delay Puts UK in Driving Seat
- New provisional deadline is May 22, EU regulator says
- Microsoft has announced several pacts to share Call of Duty
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Microsoft Corp. handed in formal antitrust commitments to European Union watchdogs probing its $69 billion plan to buy Activision Blizzard Inc., putting the onus on Britain’s merger watchdog to deliver a potentially decisive ruling on the deal.
A formal remedies package submitted by Microsoft to the EU on March 16 will now need to be market tested, pushing the EU’s final deadline to May 22. This means the focus will now shift to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which has publicly been the most critical about the takeover and is set to decide on it by April 26.