A notification from the European Commission reveals that, once the $7.5 billion Microsoft-ZeniMax deal gets finally approved, ZeniMax will be merged into a newly created Microsoft subsidiary called Vault.
This notification concerns the following undertakings:
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Microsoft Corporation (‘Microsoft’, USA),
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ZeniMax Media Inc. (‘ZeniMax’, USA)
Microsoft acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of ZeniMax. The concentration is accomplished by way of a merger pursuant to which a newly created Microsoft subsidiary (‘Vault’) will be merged with and into ZeniMax.
We recently learned that Microsoft is also waiting for the European Commission to give their green light to go ahead with the acquisition. The European Commission has until March 5th to either provide that, with or without reservations, or launch a full-scale investigation on whether any anti-trust laws would be broken.
Microsoft is waiting for a similar process to go through US regulators, too, though there is no public timetable on that yet. Once the deal goes through, we may learn more about Microsoft’s true intentions when it comes to the games coming from ZeniMax. It is unclear whether they’ll be exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms (Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and now cloud streaming via Game Pass) or not, and that’s something a lot of gamers, particularly PlayStation fans, are eager to understand.
