New Zealand Greenlights Microsoft’s Billion-Dollar Deal With Call of Duty Publisher, Gives A Much-Needed Boost to the Proposed Acquisition

When Microsoft and Activision announced a multi-billion dollar deal where the former would acquire the latter, the Internet blew up. It was not just the Internet that saw a lot of conversation about the deal. Legal bodies from all over the world called into question the nature of the deal, with Microsoft facing trials.

In its most recent update, Microsoft’s deal looks good to go as far as one country is concerned. The Commerce Commission of New Zealand, a regulating body, gave the nod to Microsoft for its acquisition of Activision.

Microsoft gets the go-ahead for its deal in New Zealand

The Microsoft-Activision deal continues to be a source of heated debate within the gaming community. It stems from the fact that the two big companies, Sony and Microsoft, acquire smaller game studios in order to retain their titles as console exclusives. As a result, Microsoft’s deal saw a lot of coverage by the media. A lot of regulatory bodies across the world took a special interest in the case as well.

After much deliberation, the Commerce Commission of New Zealand allowed the deal to take place. The governing body evaluated the demand for Activision and its titles in the country. The main objective of their evaluation was to assess whether the deal would see Microsoft prevent the distribution of these Activision titles on platforms such as PlayStation and Nvidia GeForce Now. These include titles such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and other games under Activision.

In a statement made to VGC, Microsoft reaffirmed its promise. They said, “We appreciate the thoughtful consideration by the New Zealand Commerce Commission of our acquisition of Activision Blizzard and welcome its decision to clear the deal unconditionally. This acquisition will ultimately benefit the gaming industry and gamers and we will continue to work toward closing the deal.

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This was one of the contributing factors that led to the deal being accepted. With New Zealand, Microsoft added another country to the list of countries that have approved the deal. There are over 40 countries that examined the nature of the deal and agreed to it. Following the FTC trial in the United States, Microsoft also gained approval in the European Union.

The deal looks set to go through after both Microsoft and Activision pushed the deadline for the deal to October. At the moment, the deal is under scrutiny in the UK.

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