Plus: An infographic showing the software giant's biggest acquisitions of $1 billion and above since its founding in 1975 to 2023.

Following an almost 20-months-long regulatory pushback since the deal originally was announced in January 2022, Microsoft has finally completed its $69 billion (£56bn) takeover of Activision Blizzard the renowned creator of Call of Duty, in the gaming industry's biggest-ever deal.

The deal by the nearly two-trillion-dollar company had raised eyebrows from regulators around the world over concerns that Microsoft could substantially lessen competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. Particularly, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had moved to block the deal in April 2023.