Microsoft ‘confident’ $100b deal will succeed

The head of Xbox has said that the company is confident that its attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard will get approval from regulators.

Xbox head Phil Spencer has said that he’s “confident” that Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard will pass regulatory scrutiny.

Microsoft announced its intention to purchase major publisher Activision Blizzard in January 2022 for $100 billion, and if successful, it would be the largest acquisition in video game history. The acquisition has faced some roadblocks, however, in the form of heavy scrutiny from competition regulators.

The deal has been publicly scrutinised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, as well as the EU Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission. It was recently revealed that the EU Commission might object to the deal, with a report stating that the commission is set to issue a statement of objections.

Despite the months of setbacks, including a high-profile lawsuit from the FTC attempting to block the deal, Spencer says that he still thinks that the deal will go ahead. In an interview with IGN, the Xbox head said that he’s more confident that the deal will pass than he was a year ago.

The Xbox ecosystem has access to hundreds of beloved franchises. Picture: Microsoft

“I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions we’ve been having,” Spencer told IGN, “I think the more regulators are informed about what gaming is, how the business runs, who the players are, and what our aspiration is as Team Xbox is a good thing for the industry itself”.

Still, it will be a while yet before the deal is set in stone. The investigations from competition regulators have been ongoing for 12 months, and Spencer says that the company initially planned to close the deal within 18 months. The European Commission has set a deadline of April 11, 2023, to make a decision on the deal, while an FTC investigation and lawsuit is ongoing.

It was recently reported that Nvidia and Google will be joining the lawsuit filed by the FTC, reportedly providing statements to the regulator and the courts regarding concerns around Microsoft’s domination in the cloud gaming space.

The potential exclusivity of Call of Duty has been a hot topic for regulators. Picture: Activision Blizzard

It comes after Microsoft offered to make Call of Duty concessions to its primary games console competitor, Sony and its PlayStation platform, offering the gaming giant the option to put Call of Duty on its PlayStation Plus streaming service.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.