Vivendi-Activision Merger Approved

The Vivendi-Activision (Blizzard) merger still had to get past the dreaded Neelie Kroes. The EU ok'd it, noting it clearly isn't monopoly-forming (and it isn't).
French telecom and media group Vivendi won permission from the European Commission on Wednesday to merge its videogame unit with Activision Inc in a $9.85 billion deal.

The complex deal will give Vivendi a 52 percent stake in a new industry giant called Activision Blizzard with annual revenue of $3.8 billion, rivaling that of Electronic Arts Inc, the world's biggest independent game publisher.

The Commission said for "all categories of game software, the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft".