against a US Federal Trade Commission injunction earlier this week over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it still has to clear the hurdle that is the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to clear. And it’s a fight that is only going get harder for the Windows OS owner, as the British regulatory body may kick off a new “merger investigation”.
In a statement to The Verge, Billy Proudlock, a CMA Media Officer, said that the body’s discussion with Microsoft was still at an early stage. “Whilst merging parties don’t have the opportunity to put forward new remedies once a final report has been issued, they can choose to restructure a deal, which can lead to a new merger investigation.
As it stands, the UK CMA is currently the only challenge left for Microsoft and Activision to complete. The acquisition has already been given the, despite concerns about the former’s cloud gaming services, and as mentioned at the start of the article, it achieved a landmark victory against the US FTC, after a US judge denied the latter’s request for an injunction against the deal, basically saying that its fears of anti-competitive behaviour were more or less unfounded.