KEY POINTS
  • The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority's decision to block Microsoft's proposed acquisition of "Call of Duty" maker Activision means the U.S. does not need to stand alone in its challenge of the massive $69 billion deal.
  • But the challenges to the deal in the U.S. and UK differ in their scope.
  • While having another major regulator also find competition issues in the deal may be encouraging for the FTC, the road ahead is still not straightforward.

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People try Activision Blizzard Inc.'s 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3' on Microsoft Corp. XBox 360 video game consoles.

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority's decision to block Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision means the U.S. does not need to stand alone in its challenge to the massive $69 billion deal.

In the latest hurdle for the deal, the CMA argued the acquisition threatens to hurt competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. But it did not challenge potential competition concerns in console gaming, after saying last month that evidence from industry participants convinced the agency that the transaction wouldn't harm competition in that particular market.

In this article