Microsoft's $69B planned purchase of Activision gets in depth UK review (update)
David Becker

Update 8:27am: Adds comments from Activision CEO.
Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) will see and in-depth review by UK's antitrust authority.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday that it's concerned that Microsoftâs anticipated purchase of Activision Blizzard could "substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services (game streaming)," according to the UK authority's website. MSFT and ATVI have until Sept. 8 to offer acceptable remedies.
The U.K. antitrust regulatory announced it had opened a probe into the mega deal early last month and the initial deadline for the review was Thursday.
"The CMA is concerned that if Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard it could harm rivals, including recent and future entrants into gaming, by refusing them access to Activision Blizzard games or providing access on much worse terms," the CMA said on Thursday.
The in-depth probe comes after Microsoft (MSFT) gaming chief Phil Spencer said in an interview with Bloomberg last Wednesday that he feels good about the progress the tech titan has made with regulators over its proposed acquisition of Activision (ATVI).
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick told employees in a letter on Thursday that he still expects the deal to close in Microsoft's fiscal year ending in June 2023. 
"We are fortunate to have already received approvals from a couple of countries, and the process with all of the regulators is generally moving along as we expected," Kotick wrote in the letter.
Microsoft (MSFT) announced its $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard (ATVI) for $95 per share in cash in January.
Last month, it was reported that Europe's antitrust regulator was looking into whether Microsoft's (MSFT) planned $69B purchase of Activision (ATVI) may shut out rivals.