EU clears Activision Blizzard merger

Despite Activision being sued by some of its own investors over the proposed merger with Vivendi, which will purportedly result in the world's largest, most profitable video game publisher, the companies today cleared yet another hurdle with the European Commission approving the $18.9 billion deal under its antitrust guidelines.

The Commission found no evidence that the deal would halt competition in the gaming market, stating that the merged company, to be called Activision Blizzard, would still face strong competitors such as Electronic Arts and game console manufacturers such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. With this, the merger is moving ahead as anticipated and should be concluded by June. Hopefully, the combined company will continue to bring the same standards we’ve seen in popular games such as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and World of Warcraft to the map.