Some breathing room has been applied.
Microsoft and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) now have two additional months to reach an agreement when it comes to Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Keeping to its word that it was open to a “new merger investigation”, the CMA has applied for the extension in a joint application with Microsoft to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
According to reporting from Reuters, CAT Judge Marcus Smith said he was willing to adjourn a planned hearing — which was scheduled for 28 July — providing the CMA could set out why the situation has changed; the CMA initially blocked the acquisition over concerns relating to cloud-based gaming. A two-month “stay of litigation” is now in effect.
A lawyer from the CMA said that Microsoft’s win over the US-based Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “formed no part of the CMA’s thinking” in relation to this new deal. A planned appeal by the FTC has been knocked back.
We’ll keep you informed as the situation progresses.
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