The EU is reportedly set to give the green light to Microsoft’s record-setting $69 billion acquisition of videogame publisher Activision Blizzard.

According to sources cited by Reuters, the deal will be approved next week, with May 15 as the likeliest date.

The news will be welcomed by Microsoft less than a month after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the deal over concerns it would stifle competition in cloud gaming.

The EU however is expected to approve the deal after Microsoft announced licencing deals with cloud streaming rivals such as Nvida’s GeForce Now, Boosteroid and Ubitus. Another concern – exclusivity of major IP such as the Call of Duty franchise – has also been overcome, with Microsoft pledging to keep the franchise on Sony’s PlayStation consoles and announcing an agreement to bring it back to Nintendo consoles after a decade-long absence.

While Japan’s regulators approved the deal in March, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is thought to be falling on the side of the CMA and wants to block the biggest tech merger in history.

Share Story: