Microsoft's plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for close to $69 billion has been approved by yet another country and its regulatory body. This time, it's the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission who is allowing the deal to commence.
In a PDF post on the group's website (via Jacob Parry and Florian Mueller on X), the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission stated (translated)
This case complies with the applicable provisions of the combined handling principle and simplified operating procedures. and there are no exceptions to which general operating procedures should apply, this combination may be considered.
The overall economic benefits are greater than the disadvantages of restricting competition, which can be obtained from Wen Dao From the date of joint declaration, they will be combined according to the joint declaration matters, and a shortening notice will be issued to Declaration of business.
The latest approval shows that the deal has now received almost universal approval from nearly all regulatory bodies. The big one that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are waiting for is the final approval from the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
The CMA rejected Microsoft's plans to buy the game publisher back in April, claiming it would give the company too much control over the cloud gaming market. Microsoft sent the CMA a new plan in August, giving the cloud gaming rights for all current and future Activision Blizzard games over to Ubisoft for the next 15 years.
Last month, the CMA gave its provisional approval to the new deal, and barring any surprises, the group is expected to give its full approval to Microsoft's plan sometime before October 18.
Recent unconfirmed reports claim the final decision from the CMA could be announced sometime this week. Microsoft has reportedly made plans to officially close the deal to buy Activision Blizzard this Friday, October 13.
