BRUSSELS: According to persons with knowledge of the situation, Microsoft is likely to receive an EU antitrust warning regarding its $69 billion offer for “Call of Duty” creator Activision Blizzard. This might add another hurdle to the deal’s completion.
Microsoft under EU antitrust warning: The European Commission is getting ready to send Microsoft a charge sheet outlining its objections to the agreement, known as a statement of objections, the sources added.
The EU antitrust watchdog, which has given itself until April 11 to make a verdict on the transaction, chose not to comment.
“We’re continuing to engage with the European Commission to address any marketplace concerns,” Microsoft stated. The arrangement will help us in our mission to make more games accessible to more people.
To help it better compete with market giants Tencent and Sony, the American software behemoth and manufacturer of the Xbox announced the acquisition in January of last year.
Regulators in the US and the UK have raised objections, and the US Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to stop the deal.
According to further sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke to Reuters in November, Microsoft was anticipated to provide EU regulators solutions to avoid a statement of charge and speed up the regulatory procedure.
Despite ongoing informal conversations on concessions, the persons said the EU competition enforcer is not anticipated to be amenable to remedies before releasing its charge sheet.
Microsoft said it was open to a similar agreement with Sony, which opposes the purchase, when it announced last month that it had secured a 10-year agreement with Nintendo to make “Call of Duty” available on Nintendo devices.
Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia have all given the transaction their blessings without any restrictions.