The Japan Fair Trade Commission has reviewed the Microsoft Activision Agreement and approved the merger. The regulator says it is “unlikely to cause a substantial restriction of competition” in the country. The number of countries that have approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard now includes Japan, Serbia, Chile, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
Microsoft Activision merger approval continues to gain momentum
It might seem that the fact that Sony’s home country had no issues with the merger would add to the Microsoft case. But it’s not really too surprising that the JFTC came to this conclusion considering Sony and Nintendo’s dominant position in the Japanese market compared to Xbox. This is primarily the reason why the regulator, as revealed in a press release, “will not issue a cease and desist order” on the proposed deal with Microsoft Activision.
It also seems more likely that the merger will be approved in the UK, where it has come under scrutiny from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In an interim decision, the CMA says additional evidence it has seen suggests Microsoft would suffer significant losses if it made Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox platforms.
That said, the CMA’s in-depth investigation into the deal will continue until a final report is released on April 26. Japan’s approval of the deal, in addition to this tentative decision, is good news for Microsoft, which continues to seek US Federal Trade Commission approval of the deal.