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China Approves Acquisition of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard

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Hongyu Chen

11 months ago

China's SAMR Approves Microsoft Activision Blizzard buyout

Microsoft said on Friday that China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has unconditionally approved its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal has been approved in 38 countries with a total population of 2.3B people according to Florian Mueller, founder of the FOSS Patents. While the UK government regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced in April that it had blocked the deal.

The official statement has not been released on SAMR’s official website. Sources close to SAMR told The Esports Advocate that the “unconditional approval” is usually updated every ten days. The last release is on May 18 for approvals between May 4 – 14. It’s more likely that the official statement of the acquisition of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will be released later in May.

In addition, sources close to Microsoft and Activision Blizzard in China told TEA that the SAMR’s decision was no surprise as Microsoft has a good relationship with China, and the deal would not affect the country’s interest.

Hongyu Chen

Hongyu "Eddie" Chen serves as conduit from China to the rest of global esports scene as the only Chinese journalist living in China while writing for Western media outlets. For the last four years Eddie served as the China esports correspondent for The Esports Observer and Sports Business Journal. He is a bilingual graduate of MA Business and Marketing and a certified BEng Electronic and Communication Engineer.