Microsoft will defend today the purchase of Activision Blizzard before the EU

Microsoft will have a new and decisive opportunity this afternoon to defend before the European Union its offer to buy the US video game giant Activision Blizzard for 68.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
20 February 2023 Monday 22:35
11 Reads
Microsoft will defend today the purchase of Activision Blizzard before the EU

Microsoft will have a new and decisive opportunity this afternoon to defend before the European Union its offer to buy the US video game giant Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion dollars. The tech giant has requested a non-public hearing before antitrust officials to be held this afternoon in Brussels.

On the table, the largest purchase in the history of entertainment, a historic operation with which the manufacturer of Xbox intends to take over such successful brands as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, and which has received a list of objections by the European Commission and other regulators in the United Kingdom and the United States because of the possible anti-competitive effects of the agreement.

According to the MLex news service, the private hearing to be held this afternoon in Brussels will bring together representatives of the big companies in the sector, such as Google, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, Valve or Sony. After it, Microsoft is expected to offer a press conference in which it will update its position on the operation and is expected to offer new remedies that will convince regulatory bodies.

Microsoft's intention is to convince the European Commission, which, in the same way that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States and the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom (CMA) has blocked the operation, alleging that it could harm competition and users. Winning the favor of European regulators could unravel the difficulties it has encountered in these two countries.

In fact, some private companies have also expressed concern about the purchase. Earlier this year Google and Nvidia expressed concern about Microsoft's intention to buy the video game conglomerate Activision Blizzard. According to both companies, this operation could give Microsoft an unfair competitive advantage in the video game sector and, more specifically, with regard to subscription services and mobile games.

However, the company that has shown a stronger position against this operation is the Japanese Sony, the manufacturer of the PlayStation console. Since the purchase was announced in January of last year, it has exerted a frontal opposition. At the center of his concerns is that Call of Duty ends up being exclusive to Xbox.

In this regard, Microsoft announced in December last year that it would offer a ten-year agreement in which this popular title would be published on both PlayStation, the Nintendo Switch console or the Steam platform for PC.

In recent years, the world of videogames has been the scene of some of the largest purchase operations that this industry has experienced in its half century of existence. However, Microsoft's possible purchase of Activision Blizzard far exceeds all others due to the sheer size of the deal and the sheer number of games and franchises at stake.

The European Commission has set April 11 as the deadline on which this operation can be approved or completely blocked. For its part, Microsoft expects to finalize the agreement in June of this year.