Microsoft purchase of Activision likely to close in early October - report (update)
Rich Polk
Update 10:15am: Adds detail on European Union review of deal.
Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) is likely to close in early October after the company submitted a revised deal to the UK antitrust regulator. Activision rose 1.1%, while Microsoft ticked up 0.6%.
Microsoft (MSFT) may be able to complete its purchase of the videogame behemoth in the first week of October or so, CNBC's David Faber said, citing people following the matter. It's also possible that the European Union may require Microsoft to refile the deal, though that's "uncertain" at this point.
âThe commission is carefully assessing whether the developments in the UK require another notificationâ to the European Unionâs antitrust agency, it said in an emailed statement to several media outlets, including Bloomberg, on Tuesday.
The update comes after Microsoft (MSFT) said on Tuesday that under its revised deal, it won't acquire the cloud streaming rights to all current and future Activision (ATVI) games released in the next 15 years. These rights will instead be divested to the French group Ubisoft Entertainment (OTCPK:UBSFY). 
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has set a deadline of Oct. 18 for its probe of the revised deal. 
"As a result of the Ubisoft agreement, Microsoft (MSFT) believes its proposed Activision (ATVI) acquisition presents a substantially different transaction than the one submitted for the Competition and Markets Authority's consideration in 2022," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post. "Microsoft anticipates that the CMA review processes can be completed before October 18."
Microsoft's Smith said in the blog post that the company's obligations to provide cloud streaming rights in the European Economic Area remain in place, in full compliance with Microsoftâs commitments to the European Commission. 
"The agreement with Ubisoft has been structured so that Microsoft will still acquire the rights needed to honor fully its legal obligations under its commitments to the European Commission, as well as its existing contractual obligations to other cloud game streaming providers, including Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus, and Nware," Smith said.
Raymond James analyst Andrew Marok said Tuesday that Microsoft's revised deal is likely to be approved by the UK's CMA. 
"We see this move as alleviating the CMAâs concerns; it is hard to argue that providing rights to a rival firm restricts competition in the market, especially when that rival firm is then given permission to act in their economic interest with the rights they have received," Marok, who has a market perform rating on Activision (ATVI) wrote in a note on Tuesday.

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