Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[Bryank75]

But we haven't seen Reee or Installbase tear at each other's throats yet. They're still far too arrogant in their stanning for Xbox, and I think a protracted humiliation wherein Xbox appeals, is shut down, has the deal blocked by the EC, SAMR, and all their dirty laundry is aired in front of the FTC is the best outcome.

I would love for them to go forensically through their accounts and show each and every technique they use to hide losses in their weaker divisions and how they massively subsidize areas where they are aggressively expanding and undercutting competition by losing billions...

I think if gaming can hold tough, it will be a massive victory against Microsoft and their predatory / monopolistic tendencies.... a big middle finger to them, saying 'We won't sell out, you can't ruin gaming like you ruined other industries. GTFO' .

It will be massive.

Also... has anyone checked what Florian Mueller is spouting currently? still melting down?

 

[Cool hand luke]

Also... has anyone checked what Florian Mueller is spouting currently? still melting down?

Blah blah blah Microsoft's lead counsel for the appeal defended Apple *slurp slurp* successfully in their Irish tax trial. Blah blah blah I accurately predicted Apple would win on my blog blah blah

Editor's note: Flailin' Florian also predicted the CMA would approve the ABK acquisition.

 

[AshHunter216]

Blah blah blah Microsoft's lead counsel for the appeal defended Apple *slurp slurp* successfully in their Irish tax trial. Blah blah blah I accurately predicted Apple would win on my blog blah blah

Editor's note: Flailin' Florian also predicted the CMA would approve the ABK acquisition.

Mueller also claimed that Microsoft wouldn't even have to give concessions for this deal.

Edit: He honestly reminds me of the crazy dude that popped up on social media last gen (Mr. X Media) who had all kinds of insane "inside information" on his blog about how the original xbo was secretly way stronger than the ps4 and had a secret second gpu that was going to be activated with a system update. Like Florian he also had a lot of negative things to say about PlayStation.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I've posted about this derek person in another thread, cuz he just popped up within like the last week being a major source of Anti-Sony propaganda, on the level of bloomberg. Here's another tweet he did about an 'independent report by a third party' saying that PS Now was magically in the lead, and Xcloud was behind with less than $50 million revenue. Not only are these not CMA findings, or even findings from third party data, but an independent report from a third party like Nvidia that could be completely wrong bullshit to help MS.



and all of that still wouldn't help MS in an appeal because they still own the servers and OS that is essential for cloud gaming, so those concerns are still relevant.

Yeah I think I might have to agree with you after all on Derek; he made some posts on Twitter the other day talking about MS's growth in gaming but conveniently kept forgetting that their growth in services (that he tried alluding to Sony & Nintendo following) is mainly driven by large gaming acquisitions and a surge in brand peripherals. The way he reports on it though would make one think the actual services (i.e Game Pass) were very lucrative when people like @Heisenberg007 and myself have done calculations with 3P data (market analysts, Sony & Nintendo's own fiscal data, etc.) to figure out that Game Pass revenue isn't that lucrative despite the sub count.

Sadly people like Derek can lure people into thinking they have a neutral take and outlook due to the language they use, their diction, and sounding otherwise professional. And some people like to give the benefit of the doubt. But if there are certain ways they phrase or frame a discussion that seems to often be at some benefit to a given side or brand, even at the ignorance of widely available data that can be looked up in little time, then chances are at some root or core they still have some of the same tendencies as a typical console warrior (or brand apologist), they're just more professional and polite about it, less obvious in how they convey it.

 

[Bryank75]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

 

[AshHunter216]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

View attachment 1293

They don't care about making gaming on Xbox better. They just want to make gaming on Playstation worse.

 

[Loy310]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

View attachment 1293

Dont worry, gaming will naturally leave them behind. Have to remember that folks on era in that particular thread have money invested in this deal so you are going to see some extreme bias there.
Best thing to do is put that thread on ignore, but, you already know that.

 

[nongkris]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

View attachment 1293

Lmao "random gamers can poke holes in their arguments". Imagine how deluded xbots have to be to think any of their shitty arguments would hope up in front of an actual regulatory process. It's also interesting how a lot of new accounts with no profile pictures are in that thread shilling for MS

 

[Nhomnhom]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

View attachment 1293

Let's just hope that when Xbox dies these clowns will move to the cloud and not to PlayStation.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Lmao "random gamers can poke holes in their arguments". Imagine how deluded xbots have to be to think any of their shitty arguments would hope up in front of an actual regulatory process. It's also interesting how a lot of new accounts with no profile pictures are in that thread shilling for MS

Probably the funniest part for me, them thinking they've poked holes in any arguments instead of reee'd hysterically at a document.

I truly hope these losers bet their mortgages on the deal going through, but anyone who stans for Xbox likely doesn't have any money to begin with.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

And an easy mode. It's so fucking hard I don't have the patience for these games anymore. I deleted it from my HD.

I can't believe I beat those games when I was like 11-13 years old. Now, I cannot do shit.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

View attachment 1293

These dime-a-dozen losers never have avatars. Anyone notice that? They are just like NPCs: can't write sentences, can't write paragraphs, probably text written with ChatGTP.

The "random users" he's referring to like 'rscardinals' don't even know what they are crying about in the first place, so uh good job thinking they have any gotchas over the CMA or any other regulatory body that ends up rejecting approval of the deal.

"Money finds a way"....sounds like they want Microsoft to bribe EC members with cash and tropical trips to get the deal approved, rather than winning approval on actual merit. These clowns don't even realize that same money has done piss all for Microsoft WRT deal approval in most of the big markets.

You'd think the reality of RedFall and potentially Starfield would make them realize Microsoft probably has too much on their plate right now between the XGS & Zenimax teams that they have to get in order let alone adding another ENTIRE PUBLISHER on top of it but, yeah, these NPCs don't care about quality of gaming, the hobby, or even what's actually best for Xbox.

Just whatever is worst for PlayStation.

 

[Swift_Star]

These clowns... never about games, always the acquisitions. Get the F outta gaming....

View attachment 1293

And why should I care about how damaging this will be for Xbox? Lmao, that’s not my problem. It’s theirs. They deal with it.
The delusion of theirs thinking they are poking any holes in the CMA’s reasoning
I hope ms loses so much money and space in gaming because of this acquisition that they end up almost driven out of the market.

 

[AshHunter216]

Some interesting reading on the appeals process in the UK that corroborate so.e of what has been said thus far. The CMA wins 67 percent of appeals cases with the CAT, the CAT doesn't rule based on whether they agree with the decision, rather they rule on if the cma did anything illegal, irrational or with an improper procedure. Even if the CAT kicks back a decision it goes back to the cma, often the same team that blocked a merger in the first place. It also says the CAT is not concerned with any evidence either side brings.

Appealing a decision by the CMA in a merger review – The In-House Lawyer

www.inhouselawyer.co.uk

 

[Puff]

Microsoft hires Brussels-beating lawyer to take on Britain’s competition watchdog​

Mr Beard of Monckton Chambers is seen as a leading competition barrister and has overturned multi-billion dollar penalties levied on Apple and Intel by the EU in recent years.

...the European Commission expected to break from the CMA and approve the takeover. Sources close to the investigation said they believed Brussels would allow the deal to go through as long as Microsoft committed to certain promises to keep games such as Call of Duty available on other consoles.

Microsoft hires Brussels-beating lawyer to take on Britain’s competition watchdog

Microsoft has hired a lawyer who has repeatedly defeated the EU as it seeks to overturn a decision by Britain’s competition regulator to block its £55bn gaming takeover.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[AshHunter216]

Microsoft hires Brussels-beating lawyer to take on Britain’s competition watchdog​

Microsoft hires Brussels-beating lawyer to take on Britain’s competition watchdog

Microsoft has hired a lawyer who has repeatedly defeated the EU as it seeks to overturn a decision by Britain’s competition regulator to block its £55bn gaming takeover.

finance.yahoo.com

I'm so tired of hearing about all of these schemes trying to force the deal to happen.

 

[nongkris]

Microsoft hires Brussels-beating lawyer to take on Britain’s competition watchdog​

Microsoft hires Brussels-beating lawyer to take on Britain’s competition watchdog

Microsoft has hired a lawyer who has repeatedly defeated the EU as it seeks to overturn a decision by Britain’s competition regulator to block its £55bn gaming takeover.

finance.yahoo.com

Lmao Microsoft just throwing a shit ton of money at lawyers, when this isn't even a court room. Good luck trying to prove the CMA did anything irrational in their findings when I'm sure they dotted their i's on this. And even if they were lucky enough, the CMA will just fix those errors and block it again, in 2024. The time wasted on this acquisition will continue to crater xbox's hardware sales and kill the brand

Got this from Neogaf.

Been seeing references to the CMA vs JD Sports merger. Found the case details on gov.uk. Just skimmed through a bit, but noted the major milestones.

In this case, JD Sports won an appeal against CMA, but the merger was still blocked.

July 2019 Launch of merger inquiry by CMA

October 2019 CMA begins Phase 2 investigation

February 2020 CMA provisionally found competition concerns

June 2020 CMA blocks merger <-- In MS-ABK case, we are here

July 2020 CMA orders JD Sports to find a buyer for Footasylum

November 2020 CAT appeal finds in favor of JD sports saying the CMA "acted irrationally" in two areas of their findings.

December 2020 CMA appeals decision, but the appeal is denied

March 2021 CMA begins reconsideration of the merger

September 2021 CMA provisionally found competition concerns

December 2021 CMA blocks merger

January 2022 CMA orders JD Sports to find a buyer for Footasylum

August 2022 JD Sports sells Footasylum to Aurelius Group

August 2022 Case closure

JD Sports Fashion plc / Footasylum plc merger inquiry

The CMA is investigating the completed acquisition by JD Sports Fashion plc of Footasylum plc.

redirect.viglink.com

 

[AshHunter216]

What constitutes irrationality for the CAT I wonder.

 

[Cool hand luke]

What constitutes irrationality for the CAT I wonder.

According to Reee's rats, it's "anything I disagree with." Pretty broad. Let's see if their arguments hold up against the CAT.

 

[Deleted member 417]

American company, Microsoft, still hasn't learned that UK-government-back CMA does not and will not be intimidated by money and lawyers.