European Union regulators said today they had approved Microsoft Corp.’s proposed $69 billion purchase of the parent company of Irvine-based video gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment, setting up a potential conflict with the U.K. and the U.S.
The EU’s competition authorities said their approval of the Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) deal is “conditional on full compliance” with commitments from Microsoft on its cloud gaming business.
U.K. regulators said last month that they would block the deal. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sued to block the takeover.
Shares in Activision Blizzard rose 1.4% to $78.49 apiece for a market cap of $62 billion.
Blizzard Entertainment, with an estimated 2,700 employees, is the largest OC software company by headcount.
