Microsoft Closes $69B Acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Creating Video Game Powerhouse

Software and technology giant Microsoft has reached the end of a long and rocky road, closing its $68.7 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, led by CEO Bobby Kotick, on Friday, 21 months after it had unveiled the mega-deal.

Activision unveiled the close of the transaction in a regulatory filing early on Friday.

The takeover brings together Microsoft, which owns the Xbox game platform and Xbox Game Studios (owner of Starfield developer Bethesda Softworks and 343 Industries, among other game publishers) and Activision, maker of the Call of Duty, Diablo, Warcraft and Tony Hawk franchises, among others, and owner of Candy Crush and Farm Heroes Saga maker King.

The largest transaction in the history of Microsoft, led by CEO Satya Nadella, will make it the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. Kotick and the Activision team will report to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Regulators in the U.S. and the U.K. competition authority had expressed concerns about the combined gaming giant’s increased market power. But the U.K.’s Competition Markets Authority (CMA), which had blocked the deal in April warning of the risk of a “substantial lessening of competition,” on Friday cleared the deal after Microsoft recently agreed to restructure it, clearing the final major hurdle. Microsoft agreed to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to France’s Ubisoft.

This summer, a U.S. judge denied a Federal Trade Commission request to stop Microsoft from wrapping up the acquisition.

The original deal contract was set to expire on July 18. After negotiations, the merger close deadline was extended in return for Microsoft agreeing to pay Activision Blizzard a higher fee should the merger fail to close.

With the Activision deal now done, Microsoft is expected to integrate the company’s operations, including cutting jobs in overlapping areas, and map out an aggressive expansion of its gaming arm.