Saudi Arabia Becomes First Country to Approve Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition

 

 

Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in January of this year in a $68.7 billion deal. Seven months after the acquisition was announced, Saudi Arabia’s competition authority became the first country to approve the acquisition.

 

The deal will also likely be approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by the end of this month. In May, Microsoft Vice President Brad Smith stated that the acquisition would be completed as soon as possible.

 

In April, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve Microsoft’s acquisition of the gaming giant. If the deal is approved by all institutions, the game IPs that will belong to Microsoft will include Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and more.

 

Saudi Arabia’s competition authority has approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It’s the first of many to come that will be needed for the $68.7 billion deal to close https://t.co/mVMJqPi2GE

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 21, 2022