Is the acquisition of Activision/Blizzard now in jeopardy again at the last minute? While the EU authorities apparently no objections Having more information, the American FTC has now spoken out again, announcing its intention to launch new investigations.
The background to this is also Ubisoft's cloud gaming rights, which were not relevant in their original decision. They were apparently surprised by this development and want to clarify first whether Ubisoft would actually benefit from it.
The FTC wants to know more about the background.
Furthermore, they would like to know more about the circumstances under which Sony agreed to the negotiated deal with Microsoft after the disclosure deadlines had expired.
In the application is it [called:
“Microsoft has provided them with the terms of the agreement, but the FTC wants to know more about the underlying reasons. The payment structure of the Ubisoft agreement ‘raises doubts as to whether it could ever be profitable for Ubisoft to license these games to providers of multi-game content subscription services that offer streaming.’ Ubisoft’s ability, incentives, and plans to market cloud streaming rights for Activision games are now of great importance.”
The report further states that the FTC wants to learn more about the handling of the Microsoft-Sony deal, particularly the circumstances under which Sony decided to accept the offer in July 2023. This decision was made after the disclosure deadline had expired and after the FTC had already given its initial approval.
Whether all of this will still have an impact on the acquisition, which Microsoft apparently plans to carry out tomorrow, Friday, remains to be seen. finalize Whether Microsoft will actually proceed remains to be seen. Even after receiving approval from the authorities, this doesn't mean Microsoft can now do whatever it wants. The EU has also announced that it will closely monitor the situation and intervene if necessary.
