Sources say the British CMA will make a preliminary decision on the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard next week.

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Alejandro86 for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com, September 20 (Xinhua)-- there is less than a month to go before the British Competition and Market Authority (CMA) decides whether to approve Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 'We don't have to wait too long to get a preliminary decision from regulators,'a new report said today.

The UK CMA is expected to announce its preliminary decision sometime next week, according to The Verge, citing unnamed sources. The report did not say whether CMA would approve or reject the deal, and the deadline for the decision was set for October 18.

CMA had previously blocked another version of the deal in April, claiming that Microsoft could use Activision Blizzard's games to boost its cloud game business, "which will hurt competition in the cloud game market." Microsoft appealed the decision, but both sides decided to jointly suspend the appeal process before the formal trial. Microsoft then submitted a new acquisition proposal to CMA in August, saying that if the deal succeeds, Activision Blizzard's current and future games will log on to Ubisoft's cloud gaming service within the next 15 years. At the time, CMA said it would carefully and objectively evaluate the restructured transaction and its impact on competition, including taking into account the views of third parties.

CTOnews.com noted that Microsoft has obtained approval to buy Activision Blizzard from almost all other government regulators except the UK. The Federal Trade Commission tried to get a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against Microsoft to block the deal, but both the judge and the appeals court ruled in Microsoft's favor.