The ruling of the European Union market and antitrust regulators on Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Zenimax will be completed by March 5th. This is the provisional deadline for the EU regulation authorities to rule on the deal.
What this means is that by March 5th we’ll know if there are any objections to Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax/Bethesda. It’s unlikely any problems will arise as the market disruption of this deal will be relatively small. Microsoft is not a monopolist in the European Union market regarding video games. PlayStation is the market leader in interactive entertainment in the European Union and many gamers in the EU play on PC.
When other market regulators such as the United States, Brazil, Japan and Canada have approved the acquisition Bethesda and Microsoft can formally announce the acquisition. This could happen as early as mid March. Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn was made official only a few days after EU regulators approved the deal.
