The daily business briefing: April 27, 2023

U.K. antitrust regulators block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Meta reports strong earnings as AI boosts traffic and ad sales on Facebook and Instagram, and more

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1. U.K. regulator blocks Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Britain's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it was blocking Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, saying the deal would lead to "reduced innovation and less choice for U.K. gamers over the years to come." Microsoft already has a 60 percent to 70 percent share in cloud gaming globally, and the $69 billion acquisition woule make it "even stronger," the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said. Antitrust regulators in other countries also are trying to disrupt what would be one of the tech industry's biggest deals. The Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. filed a lawsuit in December seeking to thwart Microsoft's takeover of the game maker. A hearing in that case is scheduled for August.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.