Microsoft Corp. finalized its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, the largest-ever acquisition in the gaming market.
Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) is the parent company of Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, the largest software company in Orange County with 2,450 employees. Blizzard is the maker of fantasy role-playing game Diablo IV, which helped the Irvine unit for the first time ever to top $1 billion in quarterly sales earlier this year.
Today, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority agreed to the acquisition after Microsoft made some concessions allowing competitors access to its cloud gaming market.
“The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,” the regulatory agency said in a press release.