Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is, without a doubt, a massive undertaking. So much so that, as we may expect from its announcement at the start of the year, there are still a few traffic lights that need to turn green so that the acquisition can traverse the long road that goes from the statement of intentions to the ultimate execution of the acquisition. A long and possibly convoluted journey.

Thus, any progress in this respect is fantastic news for the parties involved in the proposal's development, namely, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard's board of directors, which is led by the controversial Bobby Kotick. And today is a very good day for these negotiators because, as reported by Yahoo! Finance, Activision Blizzard shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favor of the purchase under the terms provided by Microsoft, i.e. for the offer of 68,7 billion dollars.

Perhaps because they did not fully trust the shareholders' response, Activision Blizzard's query to its shareholders was not binding, and the corporation reserved the right to act counter to the one chosen by the shareholders. A conflict of this nature, however, would not have been easy for Kotick and his team, because the shareholders may have utilized their authority, in the end, jeopardizing not only the operation but also the executives in charge of it.

The war, however, would not break out, and the final vote result was overwhelming, with the owners of 98 percent of Activision Blizzard shares voting in favor of the acquisition. Something that, in turn, may influence its appraisal by regulators, who are presently evaluating the operation in-depth to see whether its impact on the market is acceptable or, on the contrary, whether it would destabilize it by moving Microsoft closer to a dominant position.

In this regard, regulators in Europe, America, the United Kingdom, China, and other jurisdictions have yet to issue statements, and they are expected to be fairly strict in their assessment. A recent example is NVIDIA's unsuccessful takeover effort to take over ARM, which demonstrates that antitrust scrutiny is increasing globally. And it is that Microsoft, with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, would expand its already-dominant position in the video game sector, especially after the acquisition of Zenimax.