Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have announced that their merger deadline has been extended until the fall.
Speaking via Twitter, Microsoft vice chair Brad Smith revealed the extension earlier today. The new deadline is October 18th, which is three months after the originally intended closure date.
According to Smith, the extension is intended to "provide ample time to work through the final regulatory issues" that have presented themselves during the course of negotiations over the deal.
Smith also says that Microsoft will "honor all commitments agreed upon with the EC" (European Commission) and that the studio will "continue to work with the CMA on the issues raised in the UK". He concludes by saying Microsoft is "confident" it'll be able to get the deal "across the finish line".
Together with the Twitter announcement, Smith also shared a snapshot of a Microsoft Word document that shows the terms of the merger's extension.
According to that document, Activision Blizzard "is entitled to pay $0.99 per share" to shareholders.
In addition, the deal termination fee is "not subject to any condition other than failure to close", and if the deal doesn't close by August 29th, the fee will increase from $3 billion to $3.5 billion. Failure to close the deal prior to September 15th will further increase the fee to $4.5 billion.
Since its announcement in January last year, the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger has met with both approval and resistance from worldwide authorities.
The merger has been approved by authorities in countries like Turkey and South Africa, but the USA's FTC and UK's CMA have both attempted to block the deal, to varying degrees of success.
It remains to be seen whether the deal will meet with any further resistance before its new proposed closing date. The FTC's attempt to block the merger met with failure, though, and the CMA says its discussions with Microsoft around the deal have been productive.
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more news on this historic merger.
