Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[Yobo]

Oh man, the laughs don't stop when you google this fraud....

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

This Netflix Analyst Has Cost Investors a 2,000% Return​

Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter has advised his clients to sell Netflix stock for the past decade.

I swear people constantly going to him for his opinion must be a running joke in the media

 

[Yobo]

Why are MS acting like EU has approved anything

Last I heard they were looking most at cloud gaming just like CMA

 

[Darth Vader]

Last reply you'll get from me because I'm quite frankly tired of your nonsense.

But again, it's a separate unrelated business that only have in common that they use servers.

How is it a separate unrelated business when Xbox is a division (not a subsidiary) and the only thing those two business divisions can have in common is servers? Based on MAU alone, we're talking about millions of users moving from Google Cloud / AWS into Azure, and this doesn't even account for the future cloud gaming offering.

It's like to say MS has an advantage in gaming because they have Excel and Excel runs in computers, like the game engines and tools that devs use to make games, and that some devs use Excel. That doesn't mean a shit for gamedevs, because whatever spreadsheet app they use or where do they have their servers stored, or to have another division in that business doesn't matter at all.

False equivalence and reduction ad absurdum? You really need to go back to school. No, Microsoft has an advantage because they already own >60% of the cloud gaming market, and have the second biggest cloud services provider in the world. Acquiring ABK will not only further strength their cloud gaming marketshare, but do the same for their cloud service marketshare.

It would be like to say the same for Sony because they also make tvs and videogames use tvs to be played.

False equivalence. Even if it was a fair comparison, Sony is not in a leading market position for TV sales globally. In fact, they are 5th in a market dominated by Samsung.

Samsung defends crown in global TV market with 31.5% market share

Slipping sales on account of inflation and a decline in demand didn’t dent Samsung’s performance

english.hani.co.kr

Offering server storage and an app (website) to manage them with some extra related services to other companies who may store them the servers of their website, app etc has nothing to do with cloud gaming. In this case it only saves MS a few bucks of renting space for storing the server racks, but they still have to pay which is by far the biggest related costs: its internet bandwith and electricity + maintenance.

The costs are irrelevant. Moving over 100 million users to their cloud offering + controlling even more of a market where they are already in a dominant position is the problem. Here, page 4.

We have absolutely no data showing that Xcloud has more worldwide users than PS cloud gaming, we only know that PS Plus has twice the subs than GP and that worldwide Sony gaming subs generate way more money than MS gaming subs.

The CMA has that data. Here, I'll help you if you have difficulties finding page 4 in the article above.

UK is a very small portion of the gaming market and console market, or even for Xbox and PS, so it isn't relevant to measure worldwide performance.

Irrelevant. The UK makes decisions based on their market. You're the only one that keeps talking about worldwide, not me.

Cloud gaming started 20 years ago and its first 'important'/'relevant' player Gaikai for the modern cloud gaming -who filled some of the patents being used today, now owned by Sony- started in the late 2000s.

During decades the market didn't highlly scaled because there are some reasons that prevent it from scaling, that even if slightly improved since then and will continue slightly improving the main reasons will continue avoiding it to scale and become mainstream worldwide during at least a decade or two: the need of a technology available worldwide that allows enough speed and low enough latency plus also not blocked by internet data caps. Even the 6G experiments we're seeing, which will take a lot of time to have a great worldwide coverage (4G still doesn't have it).

All of this is irrelevant. Market trends expect the cloud gaming market to almost exponentially grow in the next 10 years, and market based decisions are made from those assumptions. It's a nascent market - You should look up what it means.

So cloud gaming will continue being an irrelevant market as is today, at least for decades. So it's very hard to justify being corcerned about it.

That's not what market analysis says, and your opinion is irrelevant.

And as I mentioned ABK only has a 4% market share, so its acquisition shoudn't be a concern regarding consolidation, specially when who buys it has only single digit market share and isn't at all a market leader in the main markets (mobile, PC and console), in fact in the platform more attached to cloud gaming it's the last one in the race and around 90% of the active players of their direct competitor don't buy the game that is causing the concern.

This is all irrelevant. The CMA dropped their concerns about a console SLC. Microsoft owning 60 to 70% of the cloud gaming market + the 2nd biggest cloud services is the problem. They are a market leader in a nascent market + they would be able to move hundreds of millions of users to their cloud services provider.

I suggest you to at least go to wikipedia to know what these terms means, because I see you don't know it.

I do know what they mean, but it seems to me like you don't. Go back to school.

Yes, they are almost as irrelevant as the Azure market position when talking about gaming or cloud gaming.

Are you so narrow minded that you think a company being the leader on a nascent market that involves CLOUD SERVERS, while being the second biggest in a market that also involves CLOUD SERVERS, is the same as comparing Teslas to Bananas? You really are hopeless.

Yep, you can read a preview on Google Books: "Halo: The Official Cookbook - Recipes from across the galaxy". One of the most interesting Xbox releases combined with the Xbox nail polish, the Xbox Series X fridge, and Xbox Series S toaster. It would be interesting to sell them together in a bundle.

You seem to be very well acquainted with whatever Xbox bullshit is out there. Must be in your nightstand, right next to the phil spencer dildo.

 

[AshHunter216]

Why are MS acting like EU has approved anything

Last I heard they were looking most at cloud gaming just like CMA

There were rumors suggesting that MS cloud deals had won them over behind the scenes and that they were happy with behavioral remedies. There's also the rumor that they're about to hire a MS employee to their board which sort of implies how close they are with MS. The EC president also gave an interview a while back implying that the EU and CMA potentially weren't going to have the same decision on this deal.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Do the fools that got baited into signing-up to Gamepass because of the promise of Activision and Blizzard games there get their money back?

MS actually used the deal as marketing material.

Why are MS acting like EU has approved anything

Last I heard they were looking most at cloud gaming just like CMA

It's obvious at this point that they don't learn their lesson. I don't know what will happen but the EU would be stupid to not backup the CMA and FTC on this.

 

[ethomaz]

MS didn’t changed nothing from old days

 

[KiryuRealty]

What will be happening here is that ATVI and MSFT boards would try to find a deal, and if they do, then both have to ask for and get the approval of their shareholders for said extension to happen.

Judging by Microsoft's stock rising after the CMA block came out, that might not be an easy task as it seems that investors think the deal is overpriced.

There’s no deal to find, the merger was blocked outright.

 

[Wraith Phantom]

These MS & Acti execs need to keep their mouths shut. They have failed PR class tremendously.That BS threat talk. And blame game ain't gonna get you anywhere. See how all that remedy talk was fake as fuck. Here is ones true face. Its this ridiculous arrogance and theatrics. Partially why it got blocked. Self righteous entitlement. This prick is clearly used to getting his way with ultimatums and bully tactics.

 

[riesgoyfortuna]

This guy its losing it

 

[Swift_Star]

The meldown is still going on.
Hope MS appeals this and that it drags for 3+ years.

 

[Darth Vader]

This comment is even better. There's guys are functional illiterates

 

[Swift_Star]

New report from MLex:

- Microsoft President Brad Smith took aim at the CMA for blocking the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying the decision would affect investment in the UK and was based on a "faulty" understanding of the gaming market.

- He said that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should "look hard at the role of the CMA," and he said the European Commission's approach was far better.

- Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: "This decision shows how important it is to support competition in the UK, and the UK is absolutely open for business."

- Investors and companies were "probably better off thinking harder about going to the European Union than to Britain," Smith said in an interview on BBC radio. "The impact of this decision is far broader than on Microsoft or this acquisition alone."

- Smith explained that the CMA had taken a narrow view of the gaming market, focused on a "potential concern" about how the "small" business might develop. "The process in Brussels worked far better than what we're now addressing in London."

- "This decision is probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain. It does more to shake our confidence in the future of the opportunity to grow a technology business in Britain than we've ever confronted before," Smith said.

- Speaking on the same program, Cardell stressed the potential of the cloud gaming industry and that allowing Microsoft and Activision Blizzard to merge would "really harm the ability of other competing cloud platforms to compete effectively."

- Smith said the watchdog had gone silent on Microsoft two weeks ago, and then the prohibition decision arrived yesterday.

- "This is not the way regulators in Brussels work with companies. You have more of a conversation," he said, adding that Microsoft had made the same offer of concessions to the EU regulator as it did to its British counterpart.

- Cardell rejected the criticism of her office's procedures. "We conducted a lengthy in-depth investigation that took a full six months and Microsoft had ample opportunity to put their case to us."

- "We reached the decision on the basis of a huge amount of engagement. We looked at more than a million documents to reach our final decision," Cardell said.

- Smith said the "English Channel has never seemed wider" regarding the attractiveness of investments and the regulator process.

- Smith described Brussels as "a place where one can sit down and actually have a conversation with the regulators who are accountable to the elected leaders. And the difference we now confront in London, where we have regulators who are not only unelected but unaccountable, and now making decisions that just feel fundamentally unwise."

- According to Brad Smith, "I am optimistic that the European Commission will continue to go forward, as it has signaled in recent weeks and months, that it will regard the very promises that the CMA has rejected as far more appropriate."

It's over, Brad. But keep at it, you'll get fired.

 

[Puff]

 

[Swift_Star]

I'm not really sure they want to get on this political charade. It seems to my that if the EC blocks the deal, this will just be used against them in court.

I have no doubt in my mind that the EC is blocking the deal. MS will have to take the L.

 

[Swift_Star]

The cma ghosted them for 2 weeks?
I honestly believe the cma took the console concerns being dropped personal, them having to drop it made them look flawed and stupid, and this straight block was the clap back.

The Brits walked microsoft like a terminally sick dog to the park, gave them a treat, made them chase a tree branch, then took them to the vet and put them the fuck down

Not really. CMA wanted to block this from the very beginning, the deal never had a chance to pass on the UK. They just had to try and find the best argument so nobody can poke holes on it and they did it since the deals MS desperately made reinforced the CMA concerns, since it would be MS alone that would control who and when cloud services would have access to ABK games. They owned themselves.

I believe the EC also wants to block and the insiders reports are pure PR BS. Do not take any of the reports seriously and wait for the final decision.

Anyway, the deal is dead.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

These shills are crazy!
His suggestion is hilarious.

 

[AshHunter216]

Seems like there's finally a bit of pushback against the narratives on there. I've also noticed that the people who are against the deal are speaking more openly on reddit as well.

 

[Swift_Star]

MS didn’t changed nothing from old days

View attachment 1139

Yep, this is nothing more than a manchild throwing a tantrum. He'll have to grow up and eat it. This is a really bad look for MS.

 

[Swift_Star]

These shills are crazy!
His suggestion is hilarious.

As if the UK government doesn't have other worries more important than poor baby Microsoft.
God, americans are so entitled.

 

[Vertigo]

So which dunce xbot can explain why they think Sony will make games more expensive? I see it all the time… I just want to understand the dumbassery.

Because studios aren’t bankrupting themselves into oblivion with gamepass? So because it’s free for you?

I’m so glad to see Xbox get their ass handed by both consumers and regulators. They’re a fucking cancer to gaming.