South Africa is the latest country to render judgment on Microsoft's attempted Activision Blizzard acquisition, and it's voted to approve the deal.
Earlier today on April 17, South Africa's Competition Commission announced in a press release that it had approved the proposed acquisition. Specifically, the government agency has recommended the country's Competition Tribunal to approve Microsoft's move to acquire Activision Blizzard.
"The primary competition concern in this transaction arose from the (vertical) concern that Microsoft may, post-merger, restrict the distribution of Call of Duty to the Microsoft console, Xbox, or make Call of Duty available on terms that exclude or undermine the ability of other console manufacturers to compete," the Competition Commission writes.
"The Commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in significant foreclosure concerns as the parties do not have the ability and incentive to foreclose competing game distributors, particularly Sony (Playstation) and Nintendo (Switch)," the statement concludes in its reasoning for the positive ruling towards the acquisition.
This ruling is likely a result of Microsoft signing a deal to put Call of Duty on Nintendo consoles for a decade, as well as expressing an intent to sign a similar deal with PlayStation (which the latter company allegedly declined). Microsoft has effectively done enough through these deals to dissuade concerns from South Africa's Competition Commission that it would keep Call of Duty off other platforms.
South Africa is the latest country to rule in favor of the deal, after Japan's Fair Trade Commission gave the deal the green light last month in March. This was after Saudi Arabia approved the deal, and a UK watchdog walked back previous competition concerns over the proposed acquisition. These are all increasingly positive signs for Microsoft's proposed deal.
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