CMA clears Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax

On 8 March 2021, the European Commission unconditionally cleared Microsoft’s $7.5bn acquisition of ZeniMax (publisher of video games including the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series). The Commission considered and rejected horizontal theories of harm in games publishing and non-horizontal theories of harm arising from Microsoft’s Xbox console. A CRA team including Cristina Caffarra, Oliver Latham, and Matteo Foschi advised the Parties.