UPDATE: Microsoft believe they have a strong case in Britain
Original story:A new week means one thing: another update on Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. According to areportfrom The New York Times, Microsoft is expecting the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to oppose the deal, after EU regulators issued their own antitrust warningslast week.Microsoft reportedly believes it can convince EU and UK regulators to accept their concessions and eventually approve the acquisition.
Regulators’ concerns stem from a number of giant IPs attached to ActiBlizzard including Diablo,Overwatch, and mainly, Call Of Duty. Sony and Microsoft have been in a seemingly eternal back-and-forth over CoD for months. Most recently, Microsoft’s comm lead Frank X. Shaw publiclyfired shots at Sony, claiming that PlayStation execs were speaking to EU regulators dishonestly.
According to Shaw, Sony were “claiming Microsoft is unwilling to offer them parity for Call of Duty if we acquire Activision." He continued to say that “Nothing could be further from the truth” as Microsoft were willing to sign a 10-year CoD deal “enforceable through a contract, regulatory agreements, or other means.” This is likely a similar 10-year deal as the one Nintendo and Valve wereoffereda couple of months ago. We can expect Microsoft to offer more concessions in an attempt to appease global regulators.
An acquisition of this size isn’t a good look for Microsoft, considering they recentlylaid off10,000 employees. The layoffs affected Bethesda, another recent-ish MS acquisition, alongside their in-house Halo studio 343i, who arestrugglingto get back on track.
