Microsoft Will Pay $3 Billion to Activision Blizzard If Their Merger Is Blocked
Microsoft is already planning to spend a lot of money on acquiring Activision Blizzard. Sure enough, it’s a deal that’s likely to pay off many times over, as it gains the rights to titles such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, and many, many more. But of course, that’s only if the deal actually goes through.
According to a report from The Verge, Microsoft will still have to send a whole lot of money Activision Blizzard’s way if regulators don’t give the acquisition the go-ahead. The merger agreement contains a clause that would send Microsoft a termination bill of up to $3 billion, if the termination is caused by an “injunction arising from Antitrust Laws”.
The minimum that Microsoft would have to pay in this scenario is $2 billion, so it’s an expensive situation either way. It’s also a real possibility, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) becoming increasingly fearful of monopolisation in the tech industry. In fact, it announced plans to alter merger guidelines on the same day that the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard deal was made public.
