The UK's competition authority has found that Microsoft's proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard could result in a "substantial lessening of competition in gaming consoles" and "could harm UK gamers." In a provisional finding, the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) said that Activision may need to be split up into separate businesses for the merger to proceed.
The government said it conducted a wide-ranging probe over the last five months to determine the deal's potential impact. Noting that Microsoft already accounts for 60-70 percent of global cloud gaming services, it said that buying Activision would "reinforce this strong position" and substantially reduce Microsoft's competition in cloud gaming. That in turn could "potentially [harm] UK gamers, particularly those who cannot afford or do not want to buy an expensive gaming console or gaming PC."