Microsoft extends Activision Blizzard acquisition agreement

In the statement of Activision Blizzard regarding the financial results for the second quarter of the year, merger agreements with Microsoft were also included.

Pointing out that Microsoft plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $95 per share in an all-cash transaction, as announced at the beginning of last year, it was reminded that the transaction was approved by the boards of directors of both companies and Activision’s shareholders.

In the statement, it was reported that with the agreement signed yesterday, the merger agreement with Microsoft was extended until October 18 in exchange for higher termination fees and new commercial arrangements.

In a statement from Microsoft, it was noted that it had agreed with Activision Blizzard to extend the merger agreement deadline to October 18 to provide additional time to resolve remaining regulatory concerns.

In this context, Microsoft will pay a termination fee of $3.5 billion to Activision Blizzard if the transaction is terminated after August 29, and $4.5 billion if terminated after September 15.

Any termination payments will only be made if the deal is not closed.

The EU approved the purchase, the UK opposed it.

Microsoft, the manufacturer of the Xbox game system, announced its plan to buy Activision Blizzard, the producer of games such as “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft”, for approximately 69 billion dollars in January 2022.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a review of the deal in September 2022 and blocked the acquisition in April this year, citing concerns that the agreement between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard would change the future of the cloud gaming market.

The European Union (EU) had completed its competition review and approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

For EU approval, Microsoft has committed to providing European consumers with 10 years of free cloud gaming services for Activision’s games.

The lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prevent Microsoft from acquiring computer game company Activision Blizzard was also concluded in Microsoft’s favor.