Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition Approved by Korean Regulators

Microsoft Corporation earned another point with its bid to acquire the Santa Monica, California-based video game holding company, Activision Blizzard, after the South Korean anti-trust regulator announced it has approved the takeover.

Korea's anti-trust watchdog, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), said on Tuesday, May 30, it handed down unconditional approval for Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. The agency explained it made the decision to allow the takeover after determining that the companies have limited influence in the domestic market.

Korea Joongang Daily reported that before coming to a decision, the FTC carefully reviewed any possible effect that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard's merger will have on the competition in the country's local console and cloud gaming markets. In the end, it did not find issues if the deal would push through.

"We have approved the deal after concluding there's no concern regarding limiting competition in the domestic gaming market," the FTC said in a statement. "The chance of foreclosure is low, and even if foreclosure occurs, there is little concern of competitors being excluded from the market. Unlike overseas, Blizzard's major games are not hugely popular in Korea's console gaming market."

Before reaching a decision, the FTC discussed the matter with overseas anti-trust regulators so it could consider their opinions as well. The agency also looked into the console market and discovered that compared to Sony's PlayStation gaming console, which takes up 70 to 80% of the market, Microsoft's Xbox only has 5 to 10% of the market share in the country, this contributed to its decision to greenlight the deal.

Meanwhile, it was in April 2022 when Microsoft filed for the approval of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The European Union already said "yes" to the deal provided that the "Call of Duty" game publisher will make its contents accessible to other rival cloud platforms. The United States is also expected to announce its decision this coming August, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Photo: Mika Baumeister/Unsplash