The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard last month, presenting the biggest stumbling block the deal has faced up to this point. Microsoft will be filing its appeal against the decision soon, and though many have suggested that the odds of the deal being in jeopardy of falling apart are now quite high, the company, it seems, hasn’t completely ruled out the option of pulling Activision Blizzard products out of the UK altogether should the CMA’s decision not be reversed.
In a recent interview with CNBC (via Pure Xbox), when asked if there was a chance that Microsoft decides to go ahead with the deal and not sell Activision Blizzard products in the UK to work around the CMA block, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was unwilling to rule out that approach, simply saying, “Let’s wait for it all to play out.”
Of course, it’s worth noting that the UK isn’t the only place where the acquisition of Activision Blizzard has run into hurdles, with the United States’ Federal Trade Commission also having filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in December in an effort to block the deal.
On the other hand, the European Commission recently approved the deal, stating that Microsoft had committed to measures that “address the competition concerns” and “represent significant improvement for cloud gaming.” Shortly afterward, the CMA said in a statement that while it respects the “different view” that the European Commission holds, it still “stands by its decision.”