The UK Capital Markets Authority is down again, rushing towards Microsoft/Activision Blizzard adoption

Less than an hour after Microsoft’s legal victory against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stepped back again and said it may approve the software giant’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard faster than previously expected. This means that Microsoft can now get the game company approved by the CMA in just a few weeks.

“The investigation group aims to do its duty as soon as possible and before [the original August 29 date]the CMA statement reads. Separately, the CMA said Microsoft’s “detailed and complex submission,” which contained concessions intended to appease the regulator, triggered the revised timeline.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been approved by antitrust regulators around the world, with only the FTC and CMA choosing to block the deal, both for inconsequential reasons. But the CMA has seemed bemused and apathetic since the FTC’s legal challenges collapsed in the face of judicial review, leaving it the only regulatory bulwark on the planet.

As you know, Microsoft defeated the Federal Trade Commission last Tuesday, paving the way for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That day, the CMA said it had agreed to renegotiate its decision against Microsoft, though it later backtracked a bit by claiming that this would require a lengthy new investigation.

But then the FTC appealed its US ruling, filing an emergency order to stop the deal, and so the FCA issued a statement explaining that it could re-evaluate its previous decision without a new investigation, but would need until August 29 to do so. But a day later, the FTC lost again, as a federal appeals court denied the FTC’s request. And now we have a new shake-up from UK regulators: the Capital Markets Authority will issue a new ruling as soon as possible, most likely in a few weeks.

This new decision will still be absent from the July 18 deadline that Microsoft and Activision previously agreed to. But given the timing, it is clear that both parties will simply extend the deadline to suddenly accommodate the flexible CMA. And that Microsoft will announce its acquisition of Activision Blizzard as soon as the Financial Market Authority issues its amended decision.