Microsoft's plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion has received yet another regulatory approval. This time, it was Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission that gave the go-ahead for the deal. In a PDF document on the agency's website, the committee said:
This case complies with the applicable regulations on merger management principles and simple operating procedures. and there are no exceptions to which general operating procedures should apply to which this combination may be considered. Since the overall economic benefits outweigh the disadvantages of restricting competition, mergers can be carried out based on the joint declaration matters starting from the date of the company's joint declaration, and a simplified notice can be issued to the enterprise for declaration.
The latest approval shows that the deal has now received general approval from regulatory agencies in almost most of the countries where the product is released. What Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are most waiting for is the final approval from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA rejected Microsoft's plan to acquire the games publisher in April, claiming it would give the company too much control over the cloud gaming market. Microsoft sent a new plan to the CMA in August to hand over cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft for all current and future Activision Blizzard games over the next 15 years.
The CMA gave provisional approval to the new deal last month, and if nothing else goes wrong, the organization is expected to fully approve Microsoft's plans by October 18.
Recent unconfirmed reports suggest that the CMA's final decision may be announced sometime this week. According to reports, Microsoft plans to officially complete the acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Friday, October 13.