Shares in Activision Blizzard, the parent company of video game giant Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, fell after a U.K.’s antitrust regulator blocked the company’s takeover by Microsoft Corp.
Santa Monica-based Activision (Nasdaq: ATVI) stock was down 11.2% at $77.03 a piece for a market cap of $61 billion as of 1.25 p.m. in New York.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) rose 8% to $297.22 each.
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority said today that it was worried the proposed deal would lead to “reduced innovation and less choice for U.K. gamers over the years to come.”
The deal was worth nearly $69 million when it was announced last year.
