U.K.'s Antitrust Watchdog Blocks $69 Billion Microsoft-Activision Deal

The United Kingdom's antitrust watchdog has prevented the takeover of Activision Publishing Inc. by Microsoft Corp., citing concerns of stifling competition if the deal goes through.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in an order that its concerns couldn't be resolved by remedies offered by Microsoft, including the sale of Activision's most popular game, Call of Duty.

"Microsoft has a strong position in cloud gaming services and the evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision's games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service," it said.

Microsoft already accounts for an estimated 60–70% of global cloud gaming services and "has other important strengths in cloud gaming from owning Xbox, the leading PC operating system (Windows) and a global cloud computing infrastructure (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming)," it said.

Potentially, the gaming industry's largest deal, if it goes through, "would reinforce Microsoft’s advantage" in the market by giving it control over important gaming content like Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft.

Microsoft will appeal the decision, according to a Bloomberg report.