Microsoft pushes to get Activision deal done with fresh UK offer
Activision Blizzard proposes to sell its streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment in a fresh attempt to win approval from UK Competition and Markets Authority for its $69 billion sale to Microsoft. The shares of Activision were trading 1.1% higher, while Microsoft was up 0.7% before noon in New York. Shares of Ubisoft listed in Paris closed 8.8% higher.
Ubisoft was the biggest gainer on the pan-European STOXX 600 index. In January 2022, Microsoft announced its biggest gaming deal in history, but the acquisition was blocked by UK Competition and Markets Authority. The British anti-trust regulator was concerned the US computing giant would gain too much control of the nascent cloud gaming market.
In a rare move, the Competition and Markets Authority said it was reconsidering the offer from Microsoft after it said it would sell the rights of all current and future Activision games released during the next 15 Ubisoft Entertainment SA. The divestment doesn’t include the European Economic Area, the CMA said. Under the restructured deal, Microsoft will not be able to release Activision games like "Overwatch" and "Diablo" exclusively on its own cloud streaming service — Xbox Cloud Gaming – or to exclusively control the licensing terms for rival services.
Instead, French gaming rival Ubisoft will acquire the cloud streaming rights for Activision's existing PC and console games, and any new games released by Activision in the next 15 years. That will apply globally but not in Europe, where Brussels had already accepted the original deal. In Europe, Ubisoft will get a non-exclusive licence for Activision's rights to enable it to offer those games in that region too.
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