Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard in $69 billion gaming deal
Microsoft acquired gaming giant Activision Blizzard on Friday, closing the biggest deal in video game history after more than a year of close scrutiny from antitrust officials around the world.
The announcement came after Microsoft cleared a final regulatory hurdle to the deal from Britain's competition watchdog.
The $69 billion purchase of Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard makes Microsoft the third-largest gaming company in the world by revenue, behind China's Tencent and Sony in Japan.
First announced in January 2022, the deal faced heavy scrutiny from regulators in the European Union, United States and United Kingdom who argued that the acquisition could raise prices for gamers and harm competition in the gaming industry, including in cloud-based gaming. In total, more than a dozen countries reviewed the acquisition.
