© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Microsoft logo is seen on a smartphone placed on displayed Activision Blizzard’s games characters in this illustration taken January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
By Paul Sandle and Yadarisa Shabong
LONDON -Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:) “opens the door” to the biggest ever gaming deal being cleared, Britain’s antitrust regulator said on Friday.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:) announced the deal in early 2022, but it was blocked in April by Britain’s competition regulator, which was concerned the U.S. tech giant would gain too much control of the nascent cloud gaming market.
In August, “Call of Duty” maker Activision agreed to sell its streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment in a new attempt to win over the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA said on Friday that the Ubisoft divestment “substantially addresses previous concerns”.
“While the CMA has identified limited residual concerns with the new deal, Microsoft has put forward remedies which the CMA has provisionally concluded should address these issues,” the regulator said.
Microsoft said it was “encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process”.
“We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continu