South Korea joins the list of countries to approve Activision Blizzard deal

Robert Collins

South Korea Ftc Custom

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has announced its approval of Microsoft’s $68 billion merger with Activision Blizzard King. The announcement was reported by Korea JoongAng Daily and others.

In its statement the regulator said its approval was unconditional, finding that the acquisition would not harm the console gaming market there. Its reasoning was that Activision Blizzard’s games account for only around 2% or less of the console gaming market share in South Korea.

Microsoft’s quest to acquire the game publishing giant hit a major roadblock back in April when the U.K.’s CMA chose to block the deal there. Microsoft will appeal the decision, but many analysts remain skeptical over its odds of overturning the CMA’s verdict. (read a full recap of the Activision Blizzard deal story here).

Nonetheless, the deal been faced with much brighter prospects since, with the European Commission, China and now South Korea all giving their approval. They join Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Brazil, Chile, Japan, South Africa, and Ukraine.

Via Videogameschronicle

Featured image via Pulse News.