Deadline for CMA inquiry into Microsoft-Activision merger slips further down the calendar

It’s been almost a year since Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for a staggering $69 billion, but the deal is still making its way slowly through various international regulatory boards. While regulators in places like Chile, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia have already given the go-ahead, three major bodies — the United States’ Federal Trade Commission, the EU’s European Commission, and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority — continue to pore over the details with a fine-tooth comb.

All three authorities have been conducting their own in-depth investigations into the acquisition and the possible effects it could have on the industry, and the CMA recently updated its own timetable to reflect the scale of the work going into it. Originally, the body had planned to release a report on their findings at the beginning of March, but the due date has now been kicked down the road to April 26, according to GamesIndustry.biz. The release of this report will mark the end of the CMA’s second phase of the investigation, which in turn followed an initial investigation last summer.

According to the CMA’s revised timetable, much of December 2022 and early January 2023 has been spent on “main party hearings” and considering the provisional findings of the investigation. Therefore, much of February and March will involve “response hearings,” with a final deadline for responses and submissions from the major parties in March 2023. April 26 is defined as the “statutory deadline to publish [a] final report,” but the group reportedly aims to finish and publish its report in advance of that deadline.

Even in countries where the deal has passed under the eyes of regulators successfully, it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing for the parties involved. In the wake of Brazil’s decision, plenty of documents were released that made public Sony’s concerns about the merger, the tightly-guarded revenue figures for Xbox Game Pass, and more. In the USA, meanwhile, the deal could end up being the subject of an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC.