Xbox and Activision Blizzard agree to delay their merger deadline

Following recent developments in the Xbox and Activision Blizzard deal, both parties have now officially postponed their merger deadline in order to obtain approval from the UK’s competition and markets authority.

The news comes from Activision Blizzard COO Lulu Cheng Meservey who tweeted the following. “The recent decision in the U.S. and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players and the future of gaming. Given global regulatory approvals and the companies’ confidence that CMA now recognises there are remedies available to meet their concerns in the UK, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft boards of directors have authorised the companies not to terminate the deal until after October 18. We’re confident in our next steps and that our deal will quickly close.”

Xbox head Phil Spencer also tweeted on on the deal, announcing “Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended the merger agreement deadline to 10/18. We’re optimistic about getting this done and excited about bringing more games to players everywhere.

The deal originally had a deadline of this week for Xbox and Activision Blizzard boards to finalize the merger. This date sat after Microsoft successfully defeated the FTC in the latter’s attempt to block the merger in court late last week. However, the UK’s CMA, who had elected to block the merger in its initial decision back in June, was still a major roadblock before the deal could go forward worldwide. Following Microsoft’s making an appeal against the decision, the CMA had agreed to an extension of August 29 before it made its own final ruling and allow the deal to go ahead.

While this likely means the deal won’t see a conclusion as soon as this week as some hoped, it seems both parties are hopeful for a conclusion ahead of this deadline. Earlier this week, Xbox and PlayStation signed an official agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for at least ten years.

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