The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated a phase 1 investigation into Microsoft Corporation's (Nasdaq: MSFT) restructured deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI). This comes after the CMA previously blocked the original deal to preserve innovation and choice in cloud gaming. Microsoft had sought to reconsider the original prohibition, but the CMA reaffirmed its decision and imposed a worldwide prohibition on the original deal.

In response, Microsoft and Activision have proposed a new deal that addresses the CMA's concerns. Under this restructured arrangement, Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights for existing and new Activision games for the next 15 years, instead transferring these rights to Ubisoft Entertainment SA. This aims to foster competition and enable Ubisoft to license and provide Activision's gaming content to various cloud gaming providers.

Microsoft's restructured deal seeks to ensure that Ubisoft has the autonomy to distribute Activision's content through different business models, including subscription services. Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft for cloud streaming rights and have the flexibility to license these rights to other cloud gaming services. Furthermore, Ubisoft can require Microsoft to adapt Activision's titles for non-Windows operating systems if needed.

Microsoft's submissions to prevent the original merger's blocking were rejected by the CMA's independent inquiry group.

In pre-market, $MSFT was trading at $323.82, up $1.94 (+0.60%), and $ATVI was trading at $91.55, reflecting a gain of $0.83 (+0.91%).

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