Brazil has become the latest country to approve Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The announcement by the regulators comes just a couple of weeks after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided to start Phase 2 investigations as it had some significant antitrust concerns.
In its closing remarks in a document that has recently been published, the Brazilian government said that it believes the acquisition doesn’t give rise to significant risks to competition and therefore the merger has been approved without restrictions. Brazil follows Saudi Arabia in approving the deal.
The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), which wrote up the document, examined the impacts the acquisition would have and especially the fact that the Call of Duty franchise would be included. It ultimately found that even if Call of Duty does become an Xbox exclusive, it wouldn’t pose a risk to competition. It also reiterated that CADE acts in the interest of Brazilian consumers, not specific competitors, such as Sony.
With Brazil’s approval of the deal, it means that Microsoft won’t have any issues selling Activision Blizzard games inside the country in the future. Microsoft will need to get approval from every country where it wants to sell Activision Blizzard products. Countries like the UK that have issues with the deal will have to be negotiated with until both sides are happy. If no breakthroughs are made, then individual countries could block associated products.
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