Despite several filed lawsuits and ongoing investigations, Microsoft still targets this fiscal year as the closure date for its highly-debated Activision Blizzard megadeal.
Microsoft’s planned vertical merger with Activision-Blizzard has been the talk of the town for quite some time now. Following competition concerns, UK regulator CMA issued an in-depth investigation into the deal, followed by an antitrust lawsuit from the US Federal Trade Commission. Interestingly, as reported earlier today by Bloomberg, this suit was allegedly filed to head off a European settlement since EU regulators had indicated they were about to start remedy talks.
Following the FTC suit, a group of ten gamers also filed a lawsuit against Microsoft as this group felt that the planned megadeal could give Microsoft an unrivaled position in the gaming industry.
“Microsoft already controls one of the industry’s most popular and largest video game ecosystems,” the suit reads. “The proposed acquisition would give Microsoft an unrivaled position in the gaming industry, leaving it with the greatest number of must-have games and iconic franchises.”
Yet, despite these ‘roadblocks’, Microsoft has always expressed confidence that the deal will be completed this year.
During Microsoft’s most recent financial earnings call with investors, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood briefly touched on the matter when talking about the outlook for the company’s third quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. According to Hood, Microsoft still plans to close the megadeal before the end of the fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2023. The executive, however, did mention that the merger needs to be approved by regulators first.
“Now moving to our Q3 outlook, which unless specifically noted otherwise, is on a U.S. dollar basis”, Hood said. “My commentary for both the full year and next quarter does not include any impact from Activision, which we continue to work towards closing in fiscal year 2023, subject to obtaining required regulatory approvals.”
It’s good to know that, despite some major roadblocks, Microsoft still expects the Activision-Blizzard deal to complete by the end of June. It will be hard to accomplish, though, given that the first hearing with the FTC is set for August.
We’ll update you as soon as more information about the planned merger comes in.
