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Microsoft's plan to buy video game company Activision Blizzard faced a potential setback on Thursday after British regulators said their antitrust inquiry needed to take a closer look at the blockbuster deal after identifying competition concerns. The Competition and Markets Authority said it was worried the USD 69 billion deal would hurt rivals by restricting their access to Activision Blizzard games. It also worried that the combined company would stifle competition in the emerging cloud gaming market. The authority gave both companies five days to come up with proposals to address its concerns, otherwise it would escalate its investigation with more scrutiny. The watchdog had opened an initial inquiry in July to assess whether the deal would result in a substantial lessening of competition in the United Kingdom. The all-cash deal is set to be the largest in the history of the tech industry. It would give Microsoft, maker of the Xbox console and gaming system, control of popular
Britain's competition watchdog is investigating whether Amazon is harming competition and hurting consumers by giving an unfair advantage to merchants that pay for extra services. The Competition and Markets Authority's formal investigation said Wednesday that it will look into concerns that the ecommerce giant is abusing its dominance to undermine rivals, echoing similar investigations carried out by the European Union's executive Commission and Germany's antitrust agency. Amazon said it will work closely with the CMA during the investigation. We believe we've always worked hard to help small businesses selling on Amazon to succeed, which is in both their and our best interests," the company said. We remain proud of the continued support we provide to businesses of all sizes across the U.K." While Amazon supplies some of the products that it sells online, many others are from third-party merchants and retailers, and provides them with essential services to make sales. The Market