Microsoft may have its back against the wall as far as its planned merger with game publisher Activision Blizzard is concerned. Next week, company representatives will meet with European Union officials and European Commission antitrust regulators in person to make the case that the $69 billion acquisition should happen.
According to Reuters, Microsoft has confirmed the closed door meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 21. There's no word on where the meeting will take place, nor which Microsoft representatives will take part in the meeting. The report does say Microsoft is expected to offer some kind of remedies to the EU, but exactly what they will be was, again, not revealed.
Microsoft's plan to buy Activision Blizzard has been controversial since it was first announced in January 2022. It's rumored that the company has already sent over concessions to EU regulators back in November 2022, but the European Commission regulators reportedly sent over its own list of concerns about the merger to Microsoft in January 2023.
Perhaps the biggest sticking point for EU regulators is the fate of Activision Blizzard's massive Call of Duty game franchise if it were put under Microsoft's control. They feel that Microsoft could keep future games from being placed on other game consoles and that might cause issues with competition with console makers Sony and Nintendo.
Microsoft has said it will make Call of Duty games available on Sony PlayStation consoles for at least 10 years if the deal goes through, along with making the game available for Nintendo consoles for the first time, again for at least 10 years.
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