Microsoft said that China has given its approval to its $69-billion plan to acquire 'Call of Duty' maker Activision Blizzard without conditions. This comes days after the EU granted the deal its approval. The takeover deal still faces opposition in the US and the UK, which blocked the plan last month over concerns it would affect competition in cloud gaming.
European regulators representing the 27-nation bloc approved the deal on condition that Microsoft make some promises meant to boost competition in the emerging cloud-based gaming market.
China’s approval has become complicated because Activision Blizzard stopped offering many of its games in mainland China earlier this year, following a dispute with local publishing partner NetEase. Blizzard had a longstanding partnership with NetEase dating to 2008, which helped the latter company grow to become China’s second-largest games distributor after local rival Tencent Holdings.
China and the European Union are the two biggest economies to have approved Microsoft’s planned US$69 billion takeover of the California-based game publisher. Activision Blizzard is the maker of many popular game titles such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
According to Microsoft, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation cleared the acquisition without conditions.
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