European Union regulators on Monday approved Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire gaming company Activision, giving the Seattle-area tech giant a boost in what would be its largest acquisition ever.
In its decision, the EU said Microsoft’s licensing commitments to let consumers stream Activision games on any cloud service and any device or operating system helped address competition concerns.
“The commitments offered by Microsoft will enable for the first time the streaming of such games in any cloud game streaming services, enhancing competition and opportunities for growth,” Margrethe Vestager, EU’s executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said in a statement.
The approval comes less than a month after the UK regulators rejected the deal, citing antitrust concerns. Microsoft vowed to appeal the UK decision.
Here’s the UK regulatory response this morning:
Microsoft is also battling the FTC in U.S. federal court over the deal, originally announced in January of last year.
The acquisition, if completed, would see one of the top 10 video game companies in the world buy the single largest independent publisher. Ownership of Activision Blizzard would catapult Microsoft ahead of Sony into the No. 2 position worldwide, behind the Chinese technology firm Tencent.
Activision publishes top-selling titles including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo.
Several countries have already given the go-ahead to Microsoft, including Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and South Africa.
Follow-up analysis: Microsoft’s regulatory concessions in Activision deal may tamper Xbox ecosystem growth
