The UK's competition watchdog has cleared Microsoft's $69bn (£54bn) deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the maker of games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, in a move that paves the way for both companies to complete the transaction. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) moved to block the megadeal in April, citing concerns that Microsoft – the maker of the Xbox gaming console – would dominate the nascent cloud gaming market. However, last month the watchdog said a revised deal that included selling cloud gaming rights outside Europe to Activision Blizzard's French rival Ubisoft had addressed its concerns, indicating the tie-up would be approved. Sarah Cardell, the CMA's chief executive, said on Friday that the competition regulator had ensured that Microsoft could not have a "stranglehold" over cloud gaming, which allows users to stream video games stored on remote servers on to their devices. "As cloud gaming grows, this intervention will ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice," Cardell said.

Microsoft is to pay almost $70bn to buy Activision Blizzard, the publisher of mega franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, in the biggest ever takeover in the tech and gaming sectors. Microsoft said that the $68.7bn (£50.6bn) It is the biggest deal in tech history, eclipsing the $67bn paid by Dell to buy the digital storage giant EMC in 2015. The deal will see the Xbox maker become the world's third-biggest gaming company by revenue behind China's Tencent and Japan's Sony, maker of PlayStation games consoles. "Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms," said Satya Nadella, the chairman and chief executive of Microsoft.