EU regulators will reportedly clear Microsoft’s Activision acquisition next week

The European Commission will reportedly approve Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week.

That’s according to Reuters sources, who claim May 15 is the likeliest date that EU antitrust regulators will announce the decision.

The European Commission has confirmed plans to publish its verdict by May 22, and it has previously been claimed that Microsoft’s willingness to offer game licensing deals to rivals is likely to address its antitrust concerns.

Last month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was preventing the deal due to concerns about its impact on the future of the cloud gaming market.

Microsoft and Activision quickly confirmed their intention to appeal the CMA’s ruling, which the former has called “bad for Britain” and the latter has labelled “irrational”.

Microsoft has reportedly hired a lawyer known for repeatedly defeating the EU regulator in competition cases to lead its appeal against the CMA’s decision.

The Telegraph (via Yahoo Finance) reported last week that the company had appointed Daniel Beard KC and planned to lodge an appeal at the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal in a matter of days.

Further reading

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Microsoft hires an ‘EU-beating’ lawyer to help overturn UK regulator’s Activision merger block

The acquisition was blocked last month but an appeal is planned

In December, the US Federal Trade Commission announced it was suing in a bid to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard over antitrust concerns.

The controversial merger has so far been approved in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Serbia, Chile, Japan, South Africa and Ukraine.