Microsoft shares: new Activision Blizzard takeover proposals delivered
Microsoft reformulated the terms of its $75-billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard after the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) denied the deal. IGTV’s Jeremy Naylor says rival Ubisoft benefits from today’s trade.
(Video Transcript)
Microsoft shares on the rise
Microsoft is up all sessions on the IG platform today after it submitted a new deal for the takeover of Activision Blizzard. It's been forced to take this action as the UK regulators rejected the initial proposal.
The US tech giant first put forward the $69-billion acquisition of Activision back in January last year but has since faced regulatory challenges in the US, Europe and the UK.
The UK's Competition Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that it's received this new proposal which it says it will now investigate with a decision deadline of 18 October 2023. Let's take a look, first of all, at what's happening with Microsoft.
They've said it's all-sessions on the IG platform which means you get an early heads up as to how it's going to open on Wall Street a little bit later on. It's up for a third day in a row. It's currently trading at $323.83. It's up three-quarters of one percent.
Deal viewed as threat to competition
I think in the context, the CMA has been the toughest critic of the takeover, citing concerns that the deal would hamper competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. Now regulators have argued that Microsoft could take key Activision games like Call of Duty and make them exclusive to Xbox and other Microsoft platforms.
Under this newly structured deal Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights for existing Activision PC and console games or for new games released by Activision during the next 15 years. Instead these rights will be divested to the French game publisher UBISOFT Entertainment prior to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision.
Let's take a look at the Ubisoft share price today in the French markets. It's up by a margin of 7.25%. It's been on this steady rising trajectory since the lows we had back at the beginning of the year and you can see several touches in this rising line of support, currently trading at €28.83.
Cloud gaming tipped as the new frontier
Cloud gaming is seen as the next frontier in the industry offering subscription services that allow people to stream games just as they would movies or shows on Netflix. The new era of gaming TV.
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