‘European Commission seems to approve Activision takeover after licensing deals’

The European Commission is reportedly pleased by Microsoft’s Call of Duty licensing agreements with Nintendo and Nvidia. According to Reuters sources, it is ‘probable’ that the EC will give the green light for the Activision acquisition.

That writes the news agency based on three sources familiar with the case. The European Commission is not expected to make the sale of any part of Activision a condition of the sale. By April 25, the European Commission was due to pass judgment on the proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft.

Microsoft has signed agreements with Nintendo and Nvidia that, if the acquisition goes through, titles like Call of Duty will become and remain available on the platforms of those two companies. These agreements are for ten years. It seems that they have contributed greatly to convincing the European Commission that the acquisition would not have an unacceptable effect on the gaming market. Sony has had a similar offer, but has not accepted it.

Convincing the European Commission would at least have overcome an obstacle. The American market watchdog FTC is still very critical of the deal and the British Competition and Markets Authority is also not happy about it. The critical attitude is not entirely surprising; this is by far the largest acquisition in the gaming industry, with a total price of 68.7 billion euros.