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UK regulator blocks Microsoft’s $68.7B acquisition of Activision Blizzard

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulatory agency voted to block Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The CMA said it was concerned about the deal’s impact on competition in the cloud gaming market, where Microsoft has a product offering. It said it would likely lead to reduced innovation and less choice for gamers in the U.K.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.