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Microsoft's Bethesda Purchase Approved by SEC

A significant step in the merger process
by Luke Luby on March 09, 2021   

Update: Not long after the SEC approved Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda, the European Commission followed suit with their own ruling. In making the announcement, the commission said that the merger "does not raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the common market."

There can be a lot of red tape involved in large firms merging with each other. That's also true of large acquisitions, especially when too firms operate in the same relatively small industry. As such, when Microsoft announced its intention to buy Bethesda owner Zenimax Media, speculators knew that it could take some time. While the two companies had come to terms on the deal, there were a lot of legal hoops to jump through.

Now, the deal has gotten past one of those hurdles; the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the acquisition. While details weren't announced - which is standard for these kinds of approval - reports have highlighted that a recent "notice of effectiveness" posted to the SEC website focuses on the Microsoft/Bethesda deal. Though neither are named, several key details make it obvious who the notice applies to.

For one, there's the  "S-4" on the page, which is a designation used for mergers and acquisitions. Alongside this is the $7.5 billion price tag, which is also the sale price agreed on by the two companies several months ago. However, this doesn't mean that Bethesda is a part of Microsoft just yet; the deal still has to be approved by European authoroties. This might be a bit trickier than getting approval by the SEC.

The main reason for this is that several European authoroties - especially those overseeing the entire European Union - have been taking an increasingly hardline stance on conglomerates. This is quite true for companies they believe have a monopoly on any given market. While this shouldn't provide too many issues for the Microsoft/Bethesda acquisition, it could slow down the process a little bit.

Should the deal go through, however, it'll be the latest in Microsoft's string of acquisitions, with the conglomerate continuing to buy up multiple worldwide studios.

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