UK regulator meets with Microsoft and Activision to discuss merger remedies

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard reportedly met with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) this week to discuss their proposed $69 billion merger.

According to Bloomberg sources, Microsoft lawyers attended a private hearing with the regulator to talk over the CMA’s findings and assess the feasibility of proposed remedies.

Last month, the CMA said it had provisionally found that Microsoft’s Activision deal could reduce competition and “result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation” for players.

The regulator outlined several potential structural remedies that might help clear a path to it approving the deal, including a partial divestiture of Activision Blizzard that could see it selling off the part of the company that deals with Call of Duty – something Microsoft has said is not feasible or realistic.

However, the CMA said it would also consider behavioural remedies, such as Microsoft’s offer to make Call of Duty available on other platforms post-merger, although it views these as less favourable than structural ones which rarely require monitoring and enforcement once implemented.

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft told the CMA this week that it is willing to pay a third-party agency to oversee its compliance with any agreed behavioural remedies.

Activision Blizzard reportedly met separately with the CMA on Wednesday to discuss the case, and a hearing with the deal’s primary opponent, Sony, is scheduled for next week.

Microsoft and Activision are also facing opposition to their proposed merger in Europe and the US.

The Xbox maker presented arguments for why its acquisition of Activision Blizzard should be approved at an EU oral hearing last week.

The forum allowed Microsoft to address the statement of objections it recently received from the EU warning about the possible anti-competitive effects of the merger.

Further reading

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The EU and the CMA are due to rule on the deal by April 25 and April 26 respectively.

In December, the US Federal Trade Commission announced plans to sue to block the merger over antitrust concerns .