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The termination date on Microsoft’s planned $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) arrives on Tuesday, and with last-minute regulatory action coming in the UK Monday, the companies are reportedly looking at a slight delay, rather than canceling the deal.
Particularly after a loss by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in its efforts to block to the deal, the biggest remaining hurdle was an April order in the UK blocking the deal pending negotiations.
The two companies aren’t likely to close by the Tuesday deadline, but don’t intend to walk away from each other and are instead working on an extension to the termination date so that they can satisfy regulators, according to media reports.
After a Monday conference by the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal resulted in a conditional pause to the appeals process, attention turns to how Microsoft can modify its deal to assuage the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority enough to lift its veto.
Those talks could take days or even weeks, and the CMA has extended the target date on its investigation to Aug. 29.
The UK is the only major jurisdiction standing between Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI).
