Microsoft’s Appeal of the UK’s Activision Decision Set for July

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Microsoft’s Appeal of the UK’s Activision Decision Set for July

Microsoft is appealing the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority decision to block its Activision Blizzard acquisition, with the hearing set for July.

Microsoft entered an agreement to purchase Activision for $68.7 billion in early 2022. The deal met immediate regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic, and Microsoft has been trying to assuage regulators’ concerns ever since.

The company won EU approval in mid-May of this year, but the UK’s CMA already voted to block the deal in late April. According to The Verge, Microsoft has filed an appeal, with the hearing set for the week of July 24.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, the odds are not in its favor.

“Essentially, there has never been a successful appeal in the UK on an antitrust decision,” Aaron Glick, a merger arbitrage strategist at TD Cowen, told Bloomberg when the CMA handed down its decision. “There does not appear to be a path forward for Microsoft.”

Microsoft’s Appeal of the UK’s Activision Decision Set for July
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