Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has raised many eyebrows since it was first announced early last year. Since then the company has been hard at work with Activision to get its acquisition over the line. Now, it looks like the tech giant may have hit a major milestone in finalizing the purchase.
According to Dealreporter (via SeekingAlpha), Microsoft has received approval from the State Administration for Market Regulation. The Chinese regulator has granted "unconditional approval" to the deal, as per sources familiar with the matter. However, no other details are available at this time and we will have to wait for an official announcement to know more about the decision.
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If true, this would be the second major approval for Microsoft after the Redmont giant received the green light from the European Union earlier this week. The EU, however, did add conditions when approving the deal and it was comfortable in doing so after Microsoft agreed to license deals with cloud streaming rivals Nvidia, Boosteroid and Ubitus.
With Microsoft's receiving approval from the Chinese regulators, the company will have sign-offs from two big economies while it fights to get the deal over the line in the UK. Earlier, CMA had expressed its displeasure over Microsoft's acquisition citing that Microsoft will get "control over important gaming content such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft."
While the UK is not happy with the deal, other countries like Ukraine, Brazil and Japan have approved the deal. Activision, on the other hand, confirmed that it had hired a top lawyer to appeal the UK's decision to reject the deal.
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