Activision will be purchased by Microsoft for $69 billion. Blizzard is facing a thorough antitrust probe in Britain after the tech company declined to make suggestions to allay worries about competition.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority announced on Thursday that the landmark transaction had been referred for additional review as part of a phase 2 probe.
According to the evidence at hand, the acquisition “may be expected to result in a substantial loss of competition” in the United Kingdom, the watchdog stated.
Competition regulators from all around the world are looking closely at the all-cash transaction, which is expected to be the biggest in the history of the IT sector. It would give Microsoft, the company behind the Xbox gaming system and console, authority over well-known game properties including Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty.
Regulators in the UK had earlier this month initiated a preliminary investigation and threatened to expand it unless the corporations came up with solutions within five days to allay their worries.
The watchdog stated that Microsoft “assured the CMA that it would not give such commitments” last week.
Microsoft declined to comment and pointed to a statement made this month by its president, Brad Smith, in which he stated that the company is prepared to cooperate with U.K. regulators and is devoted to making Activision’s well-known Call of Duty game accessible on both the Xbox One and rival Sony’s PlayStation.
Only Saudi Arabia has authorized the contract, more than eight months after Microsoft first announced it. The acquisition is still under investigation by competition watchdogs from New Zealand to Brazil and the U.S., and the European Union is poised to announce its own probe.
