Curtain Call: Microsoft, Activsion Blizzard Announce Completion Of Acquisition

It is a deal that has been two years in the making, but Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been completed. If you haven't followed along for the full play by play of this saga, you can go back and look at all the posts we've done on the topic. But the primer on this is that Microsoft announced it was pursuing the deal, then it faced 3 supposedly serious regulatory challenges from America, the UK, and the EU. One by one those challenges fell away, through a combination of deals Microsoft inked with other non-Microsoft platforms to keep some major franchises non-Microsoft exclusive for 10 years and some rather absurd focus being put on cloud-gaming competition instead of the wider gaming market. Eventually, all that remained was a last okay from the UK's CME, which Microsoft subsequently got.

The video game industryjust got a lot smaller. The long and winding saga of Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard has finally come to a close with the companies announcing the completed merger today followingone last greenlight from regulators in the UK.Call of Dutyisnow part of Xbox and the tech gianthas now surpassed Sony as the second biggest gaming company in the world, as gaming'sbig march toward corporate consolidationcontinues.

In addition to the blockbuster military shooter, Activision Blizzard producesOverwatch 2,Diablo IV, andWorld of Warcraft. The acquisition will providea raft of big gamesfor Microsoft's growing Xbox Game Pass subscription service, as well as make it amassive player on mobilewith some of the biggest smartphone games in the world inCandy CrushandCall of Dutymobile. Microsoft signed a 10-year deal to keepCall of Dutyon PlayStation, but has reserved the right to make other Activision Blizzard franchises exclusive to its Xbox platforms going forward.

And as Microsoft has made very clear through actions it took during the regulatory fight, Microsoft absolutely is going to bring a whole bunch of franchises, some of which have been around for years, to Microsoft exclusively. This is as it gobbles up several major gaming franchises combined with adding in at least 10,000 employees, at least until some of those from the acquired companies can be culled.

And so this deal is complete, though delayed from its original intended completion date.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard had originally planned to close the deal by last July, but battles with regulators in the UK and U.S. almost killed it off. The Federal Trade Commission attempted to block the merger in federal court over the summer, leading to a week-long trial that ended up revealing anunprecedented amount of behind-the-scenes infoabout Xbox, Sony, and other gaming companies, includingleaked plansfor upcoming consoles and private emails between top brass.

And that's about as much good as came out of the FTC's suit. And the other regulatory action as well, for that matter.

And, as the Kotaku article noted at its opening, the gaming industry just got smaller.