Activision Blizzard official announcement! CEO Bobby Kotick issued an open letter confirming that the acquisition of Microsoft has received preliminary approval from the CMA. Original letter: I would like to share with you the latest progress on our plans to merge with Microsoft. Today, the UK regulator CMA gave preliminary approval to our merger with Microsoft based on the resolution of Microsoft's new merger application. This approval is critical to completing our merger.
The next step is for the CMA to collect third-party feedback, after which the CMA will make a final decision.
As I said when we announced the deal, this deal will help us accelerate our ambitions for the future of gaming and enable us to better serve our players. Microsoft recognizes that our commitment to excellence and creative independence has served us well over the past 30 years. I believe their resources, technology, and tools will provide us with greater opportunities to create better games.
This is an important milestone for the merger and a testament to our solution-oriented approach to working with regulators. I remain optimistic as we continue our journey toward completion and am deeply grateful to each of you for your dedication and focus throughout this process.
I will keep you updated on our anticipated progress as the regulators continue their processes.