It looks like Microsoft officially got one step closer to finishing its acquisition of ZeniMax as the SEC has cleared the deal today.
One of the final hurdles towards its successful acquisition of ZeniMax Media, a deal worth $7.5 Blillion, Microsoft has to feel good seeing the SEC's approval come across their desks this morning. The SEC gave their final approval of the deal this morning in this SEC filing document.
This isn't the final hurdle Microsoft and ZeniMax have to jump, however, before completing what will be the largest video game company buyout in the industry's history. Later today the EU Competition Bureau is also expected to pass down its judgement on the merger today.
Microsoft announced the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of game developer/publisher Bethesda as well as Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios, for an astronomical sum of $7.5 Billion USD. Since then the company has set up a subsidiary company, called Vault, as a way to comply with the European Union's regulations to host the game developer's companies as they merge into Microsoft. It's still unclear how this acquisition will affect Bethesda's historically cross-platform games, such as The Elder Scrolls series or the upcoming Starfield, though Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has stated that the acquisition wasn't done to "take games away from another player base."
