Two other bodies delayed approval of the Activision acquisition.

Three weeks ago, Microsoft could rejoice when the Saudi Arabian Competition Authority was the first to approve the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. If anyone expected other institutions to follow suit soon, they miscalculated.

The UK Competition Authority was the first to decide on a more detailed investigation. Now to him added authorities from Australia and New Zealand. They decided to postpone the acquisition approval verdict.

In Australia, the proceedings are suspended until Microsoft is provided with new information, and in New Zealand they want to issue a verdict on 11/11/2022. The application was initially considered at the end of July, then it was supposed to be considered in mid-August and twice in early September.

As can be seen, authorities in more countries they evaluate the scope and impact, because it is an essential extension of Microsoft. Authorities they don’t want to underestimate anything and Phil Spencer and other executives from Microsoft and Xbox will have to reassure and promise again.

Even with the difficulties, they expect the acquisition to be fully approved by Microsoft by June 2023. A US company must be approved by all markets. It’s no secret that American FTC, British CMA and European Union have the most important opinion. Maybe the small countries are waiting for the decision of these three.

Meanwhile, Meta supports the acquisition. The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp has filed documents with the Brazilian antitrust authority. According to Mark Zuckerberg’s company, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision BLizzard will in no way lead to market fragmentation.

According to Meta The video game market offers many opportunities for new publishers. He cites Amazon Luna or Netflix Games as examples. In addition, cloud gaming and digital marketplace services have broken down the barriers between platforms so that anyone with a simple internet connection can play their favorite games without being tied to a single device.

As you may have read several times, Jim Ryan has a different opinion. Sony boss publicly criticizes deal and according to the statement, he’s worried about Call of Duty. We wrote more here.