UK regulator opens new probe for revised Microsoft-Activision deal (update)
Ethan Miller
Update 7:50am: Adds premarket stock movement, Microsoft's comment.
The U.K.'s antitrust regulator said on Tuesday it had opened a Phase 1 probe into a newly restructured deal proposed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to buy Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI).
Shares of Activision (ATVI) rose 1.2% in premarket trading, while Microsoft (MSFT) gained 1%.
Under the new deal, Microsoft (MSFT) will not 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 French group Ubisoft Entertainment (OTCPK:UBSFY). Ubisoft's Paris-listed shares rose 7% after the news.
"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."
"For us, nothing substantially changes with the addition of this divestiture: our merger agreement with Microsoft (MSFT), closing deadline and cash consideration remain the same," the gaming firm's CEO Bobby Kotick said. 
The CMA set the deadline for a decision based on its Phase 1 investigation on October 18.
The U.K. agency is now the last regulatory hurdle for the deal, as it had blocked the original $68.7B acquisition on account of antitrust concerns.
"We haven't take a final decision," Sarah Cardell, CEO of the CMA told CNBC in an interview. "We are simply opening a new investigation. But Microsoft made clear that they believe this deal fully addresses our competition concerns."

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