Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, March 3 (Reuters)-Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is expected to be approved by EU antitrust authorities by providing licensing agreements to competitors, according to Reuters.

In January last year, Microsoft announced that it would spend $68.7 billion to acquire game giant Activision Blizzard. However, the acquisition still needs approval from a number of regulators around the world.

The European Commission plans to make a decision on the deal by April 25 and is not expected to require Microsoft to sell assets for approval, according to people familiar with the matter.

In addition to licensing agreements for competitors, Microsoft may have to provide other behavioral remedies to allay concerns other than Sony, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. Such remedies usually relate to the future behavior of the merged company.

Activision shares rose 1.8 per cent in pre-market trading and 2.6 per cent in late trading after the news came to light.

Brad Smith, Microsoft president, said last month that Microsoft was prepared to offer licensing agreements to competitors to address antitrust issues, but would not sell Activision's lucrative call of Duty franchise. Brad Smith said it was unrealistic for Activision to spin off a game or part of its business from other businesses.

EU competition enforcement agencies declined to comment.

Microsoft said it was committed to providing effective and easy-to-implement solutions to address the concerns of the European Commission. A Microsoft spokesman said: "We are committed to giving Sony, Steam, Nvidia and other companies 100% equal access to call of Duty over a long period of time, which will protect the interests of gamers and developers and increase market competition."

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