Why Antitrust Concerns Won’t Block Microsoft’s Activision Acquisition
Samson Amore
03:00 PM | January 24, 2022
Microsoft’s proposed
$69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the video game industry’s biggest-ever deal—but while it will likely
create a gaming giant by bringing the “Call of Duty” publisher under the Xbox behemoth’s umbrella, legal experts say there is little chance of the deal being called off due to antitrust violations.
The merger is still subject to approval by federal regulators at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, a process which could take up to a year. Until then, Santa Monica-based Activision will continue to operate independently with
embattled CEO Bobby Kotick at the helm.
If it is approved, the deal would make Microsoft the world’s third-largest gaming firm based on revenue, behind only Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent and longtime Japanese rival Sony. Still, on market share alone, it is unlikely that the combination would raise antitrust red flags; Microsoft’s share of the gaming industry market was just 6.5% in 2020, according to industry research firm Newzoo, which noted that the addition of Activision would lift that figure to only 10.7%.
Gordon Lang, a former DOJ attorney who now helms law firm Nixon Peabody’s antitrust practice, told dot.LA that the deal’s price tag is “an eye-opener and it's enough to get the agency's attention—but as a practical matter, a price tag by itself is not going to make a transaction that has no competitive issues unlawful.”
Boy could you imagine
Ruh Roh
