The South African Competition Authority has approved the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft without conditions. This makes the takeover a small step closer, although there are still bigger hurdles to overcome.
The South African Competition Tribunal says that it will announce the reasons for the unconditional approval of the acquisition at a later date. With South Africa’s consent, Microsoft once again has the necessary permission to proceed with the acquisition. The top two permissions Microsoft still needs to obtain are in the US and in the UK.
Microsoft filed a lawsuit against the US Federal Trade Commission last week, with the FTC seeking a court ruling to temporarily block the takeover. The FTC has an ongoing internal lawsuit; the regulator will hold the first hearings in that case on August 2. In the meantime, however, Microsoft could already complete its acquisition. Microsoft and Activision could then be forced to part ways again later if the FTC concludes that this is necessary.
The FTC wants to prevent Microsoft from completing its acquisition while its investigation is still ongoing. A decision on that case will probably follow within a few weeks. The British CMA is blocking the takeover. Microsoft can work around this by ceasing Activision Blizzard’s operations in the UK and has threatened to do so.