Japan’s FTC Approves Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Activision Blizzard

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has approved of Microsoft’s acquisition deal with Activision Blizzard. This is a significant development in the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger, bringing the companies one step closer to the closure of the $68.7 billion deal. The announcement of approval can be found on the JFTC website, which states (using Google Translate) “the JFTC determined that the conduct of this case would not substantially restrain competition in certain fields of trade.”

The approval of the historic merger by the JFTC adds yet another major approval to the list of countries that have accepted the deal. The five countries that have explicitly approved so far are Japan, Brazil, Chile, Saudi Arabia and Serbia. The biggest opponents of the deal, the UK, US and EU, remain undecided. Despite this, the UK has shown signs it may be increasingly more likely to approve of the merger, after the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) reduced the scope of their concerns in a recent update. The concerns of the EU and UK are now almost exclusively focused on the cloud gaming space.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
Call of Duty, one of the most contentious parts of the acquisition, isn’t hugely popular in Japan.

Approval from the JFTC is also interesting as it is the home country of Sony, the biggest and loudest enemy of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger. Microsoft’s Xbox has historically sold incredibly poorly in Japan, home of Nintendo and PlayStation, so it’s not particularly surprising that Japanese market authorities found that competition in the country would not be significantly affected. The main content of the acquisition, Activision Blizzard’s crown jewel Call of Duty, is also not especially popular in Japan.

Are you surprised the JFTC approved of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger? Which country do you think will announce their decision next? Let us know in the comments below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more gaming news.

Be sure to also to check out our massive Activision Blizzard acquisition page for the latest news and in-depth explainers on recent events!

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