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Microsoft and Activision Blizzard on Wednesday agreed to extend the deadline for their merger agreement until Oct. 18, Activision said in a statement on Wednesday.
Originally the two companies had agreed to complete the transaction by July 18, but regulatory pushback from the U.S. and the U.K. delayed the takeover.
The extension was made as the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority moved to delay its review of the deal until Aug. 29. Microsoft and Activision are now giving themselves enough time for the CMA appraisal to finalize.
The CMA had originally blocked the transaction in May, citing concerns over the threat to competition in the nascent cloud gaming market.
The U.K. regulator changed tack and paused all litigation after the Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to block the deal failed in court.
The CMA said it was “ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction” in a way to satisfy the regulator’s concerns.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.
