Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard, and the American giant has already made it clear on more than one occasion that is willing to do anything to get it. He doesn’t mind making concessions to Sony, he doesn’t mind committing to bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo Switch, and he has no problem investing money and time in getting through legal processes that may arise both in the pre-purchase phase and in the later stage.
In some countries Microsoft has faced significant opposition from competition regulators, but in others it has gotten quick and straightforward approval, two profoundly opposite results which in the end do nothing more than increase the controversy in which this operation has been involved, and which began from the moment the intention of the Redmond giant to buy Activision Blizzard was confirmed.
The FTC’s opposition was also bad news for Microsoft, but the company hasn’t taken its foot off the gas and is willing to face the judicial process that is coming. Said process will not prevent the giant from continuing with the purchase operation, it will not make it back down, even though it may considerably delay said acquisition. We do not have a specific date, but the hearing could be held in August of this year, so in the end it is likely that the judicial process will not end until 2024, and in the best of cases.
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, was confident, saying that the purchase could be completed by June 2023, but it is clear that this prediction will not come true. Things in Europe are not going well either, and in part it is thanks to the efforts that Sony has made in the old continent to block the purchase operation using, yes, arguments that are more than questionable.
It seems that in the end Microsoft is going to have to dedicate more time and resources than anticipated to the purchase of Activision Blizzard, but it has plenty of means to achieve it, and it is willing to do anything for it, so I no longer wonder if it will end up completing said purchase transaction, what I wonder is when it will.
