European Commission to rule on Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda on March 5 5

The European Commission will give its verdict on March 5 on the proposed acquisition of Bethesda by Microsoft. The Xbox maker announced last year that it plans to acquire Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.

Microsoft applied to the European Commission for approval for the acquisition at the end of last week. This is apparent from the notification that the European body has put online. The committee writes in it that the provisional deadline for issuing a judgment has been set on 5 March.

The European Commission is now conducting a preliminary investigation. As a result, Microsoft may receive approval for the acquisition, possibly with conditions attached to it. If the European antitrust investigators do not agree, a formal investigation will follow. In that case, the results must be awaited before Microsoft and ZeniMax Media can proceed with the acquisition plans.

Microsoft needs European approval for the acquisition because it could affect European consumers. The European Commission will investigate whether a takeover could have a market-distorting effect. Such an investigation is common in large acquisitions.

In September last year, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Bethesda. Both companies have reached an agreement and expect the acquisition to be completed by the middle of this year. The time between the announcement of the acquisition and its closing is necessary, among other things, to obtain the necessary approvals from regulatory authorities.

With the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Microsoft will own all Bethesda studios. This involves a total of 2300 employees at various studios, such as id Software, Arkane and MachineGames. Those studios have released games in franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Dishonored, and Prey in recent years. Work is also underway on Starfield and an Indiana Jones game.