Microsoft and Activision Blizzard’s $69 billion acquisition deal was supposed to be struck today, but the firms are reportedly in talks to extend the deadline.
As originally agreed, Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard was supposed to be completed today (18 July). This added a bit of ticking-clock tension to what has begun to felt like an endless parade of approvals, court cases and bizarre incidents with black marker pens. If the deal isn’t completed in time, Microsoft then theoretically owes Activision Blizzard a $3 billion cancellation fee.
According to Reuters (via Gamesindustry.biz), however, both parties are reportedly in negotiations to extend the deadline. That extension would therefore give Microsoft more time to come to some sort of agreement with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which blocked the buyout in April. The CMA’s second ruling on the deal, based on Microsoft’s appeal, is due to be made on 29 August, since its own deadline was pushed back by six weeks.
The CMA appears to be the last remaining objector of any significance, with the US’s Federal Trade Commission dramatically losing its court case against Microsoft, while its subsequent attempt to halt the deal was also dismissed.
Microsoft has also sought to assuage companies’ fears of anti-competitive practices, having signed agreements that Call of Duty – the financial jewel in Activision Blizzard’s crown – will appear on rival platforms for a decade, with deals having been struck with Nintendo, Sony and Nvidia.
As for Microsoft’s extension agreement with Activision Blizzard, Reuters also reports that moving the deadline has another useful function: it will help to “ensure that Activision is not wooed by another potential acquirer or has a change of heart,” according to its source.
If it goes ahead, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (Actisition?) will be the biggest deal of its kind in history, worth a startling $69 billion. Again, if it goes ahead, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will reportedly earn as much as $375 million from the takeover, thus turning him from merely obscenely rich to really, thoroughly, horrendously rich.
