• The Competition Commission of South Africa has approved the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
• The Commission says it doesn’t believe the acquisition will result in a lessening of competition.
• Approval of the deal is still pending in the UK and US.

Microsoft has scored a win regarding its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The Competition Commission of South Africa announced on Monday [PDF] that it had approved the acquisition. The commission noted that the primary concern about the acquisition was that Call of Duty would become a Microsoft platform exclusive.

“The Commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in significant foreclosure concerns as the parties do not have the ability and incentive to foreclose competing game distributors, particularly Sony (Playstation) and Nintendo (Switch). Furthermore, the merging parties have made undertakings to continue supplying Call of Duty games to other console manufacturers,” the Competition Commission said.

As such, the Commission said that the acquisition is unlikely to result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant market.

“The Commission further found that the proposed transaction does not raise any substantial public interest concerns,” it concluded.

South Africa joins Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, Japan, and Serbia in the countries which have approved Microsoft’s intended acquisition. However, the acquisition is yet to be approved in both the US and the UK with the watchdog in the latter having given both parties a hard run since the acquisition was proposed.

However, at the end of March the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK had a change of heart.

“Having considered this new evidence carefully, together with the wide range of information gathered before those provisional findings were issued, the CMA inquiry group has updated its provisional findings and reached the provisional conclusion that, overall, the transaction will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console gaming in the UK,” the CMA wrote.

The authority is expected to publish its final report on 26th April.

As for the US, the Federal Trade Commission has filed an administrative complaint against the merger. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 2nd August 2023.

Microsoft said when it announced the acquisition that it expected to finalise the deal by the end of the 2023 fiscal year so there is time for all the approvals it needs to come through. Provided those approvals actually happen.