Microsoft’s $75bn Activision takeover blocked by UK regulator

The UK competition regulator has blocked Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of the Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, in a possibly fatal blow to the software giant’s biggest-ever deal.

The Competition and Markets Authority said on Wednesday it believed the company would be commercially motivated to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service.

Activision shares fell 11 per cent in pre-market trading.

The CMA added that Microsoft had failed to address its concerns about protecting innovation in the nascent cloud gaming market.

The ruling comes after the regulator retreated from a key concern in February, in step that had appeared to pave the way for the two sides to inch the deal through. The companies had hoped to reassure the CMA that licensing deals signed with cloud gaming platforms would be sufficient to clear the takeover.

This is a developing story