Today, the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has agreed to give Microsoft and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to negotiate over the company’s planned acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The CMA has extended its date for a final order to August 29th, 2023, meaning that Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard will likely agree to temporarily extend their deal past the original July 18th, 2023 deadline. This all assumes that Microsoft satisfies requirements the CAT set out by Thursday, July 20th, 2023.
Since we last reported on the acquisition, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced that the company had signed a “binding agreement” with Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for at least ten years after the deal closes.
