Microsoft reportedly aiming to complete Activision Blizzard acquisition next week

Microsoft is confident it can complete its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard this time next week.

That's according to sources speaking to The Verge, who say that the Xbox firm plans to close the deal on Friday, October 13.

Completion is still dependent on the merger being approved by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, but the body provisionally approved the deal last month and is expected to announce its final decision later today.

The CMA originally blocked the acquisition earlier his year, but Microsoft submitted a modified version in July that aimed to address the regulator's concerns about dominance in the cloud gaming space – primarily by selling cloud gaming rights to all Activision Blizzard titles, including any released over the next 15 years, to Ubisoft.

In September, the CMA stated this addressed most of the issues it had with the deal, granting provisional approval, but added that it still had "residual concerns," for which Microsoft proposed further remedies.

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard was originally due to be closed by July 18, 2023, but the two companies agreed to extend this to October 18 while the remaining issues with the CMA were resolved.

If the deal does not complete by that date, Microsoft must pay Activision Blizzard a fee of $4.5 billion and renegotiate the terms.

The only other regulator to oppose the acquisition is the US Federal Trade Commission, which failed to block the deal in court back in July. The FTC is appealing this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with a decision due in December.

It is also still planning its own internal administrative hearing, but this will not take place until 21 days after the Ninth Circuit's verdict.

You can read about the regulatory hurdles Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have had to overcome in our extensive primer.

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