Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

Swift_Star

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I get the feeling that the two regulators have known how the other was going to rule on this case for a while now. The interview that the EC president gave supports this.
That's very likely, yes. And the FTC already blocked the deal but in the US, you can go to court and get corrupt judges to rule in your favor, not in the UK. So, the deal remains dead.
 

Yurinka

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So what's the point of approving it then?
Each market regulator has to make their own investigation and give their take regarding their own market.

And then if after appealing any negative result, if some of them blocks the deal, it gets killed worldwide.
 
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Swift_Star

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Thoughts?

That means the UK ruling is a worldwide ruling, no matter what the xbots say.
The deal requires the approval of FTC, EC and CMA.
If one of them blocks the deal, it can't be completed.
All in all, the deal remains dead and CMA won't be bullied into approving it.
That's my reading of the whole situation.
Xbots and americans will cry and rage but what do I care?
 
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AshHunter216

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I wonder if Sony or Google would view it as worth the effort to appeal the EU decision; Probably not given the cma's ruling and how firm they seem in their stance.
 
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LED

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That means the UK ruling is a worldwide ruling, no matter what the xbots say.
The deal requires the approval of FTC, EC and CMA.
If one of them blocks the deal, it can't be completed.
All in all, the deal remains dead and CMA won't be bullied into approving it.
That's my reading of the whole situation.
Xbots and americans will cry and rage but what do I care?
Precisely, and if anything, CMA's tweets from hours ago only emboldened their own decisions, deal is still dead.
 

Nhomnhom

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What do they mean by free license to CoD? To me it doesn't make sense in any context. Is it free to users or other services? Neither makes any sense.
 

Plextorage

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looks like gbiz article maybe
It is. From Dec. last year


If the case reaches the August hearing, the judge's decision could still be appealed by the FTC, Microsoft and/or Activision, which would move it to the US Court of Appeals and potentially all the way up to the US Supreme Court. Again, Microsoft could reach a settlement with the FTC at any point during this time, although Hoppe says the latter's commissioners "have indicated that they are skeptical of the value of such settlements."

And 2nd


 
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Swift_Star

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I wonder if Sony or Goggle would view it as worth the effort to appeal the EU decision; Probably not given the cma's ruling and how firm they seem in their stance.
I don’t think Sony wants to waste any more time with this as the deal is still dead by the CMA ruling. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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They agreed that the cloud market was a concern, but they thought behavioral remedies were sufficient whereas the cma did not. I still need to do some reading on how strict the remedies actually are though. I also need to read up on whether MS are able to do anything sneaky to get past the cma block.

I personally want the deal stopped, because it would give MS the greenlight to continue to buy any and everything they want afterwards until Playstation is starved of content outside of their current first party.

It doesn't, though, and I've said this before. MS getting ABK puts them within spitting distance of PlayStation's revenue, and supersedes Nintendo's easily. It also gives them majority market share in the cloud market in terms of net worth of gaming IP and technology assets, bigger than Sony, Amazon, Google, Apple etcetera on those terms.

So MS could no longer make the argument they need yet other 3P publishers because they're in "last place" in console gaming or need more 3P assets to "experiment" with and grow the cloud gaming space, as those arguments fall apart upon owning ABK. And if by some measure Xbox division revenue takes a nosedive even after acquiring & integrating ABK's revenue into it, then that also works against Microsoft getting other publishers because now it can be argued their acquisitions are costing the market actual, tangible financial losses.

If post-ABK sees a drop in ABK software sales and big drop in Xbox revenue, then a sensible conclusion is that the quality of ABK content offerings degraded under Microsoft's ownership, leading to a reduction of choice in the market for customers because games they at one point could have purchased on the expectation of sound quality, can no longer be purchased (or services offering them, no longer subscribed to) due to the collapse of that same quality. That harms the market for customers.

So at the very least MS getting ABK holds them up from getting another publisher for a couple of years and in that time frame, if there is one too many RedFall-like situations with ABK games under their ownership, that will negatively impact their ability to make further acquisitions (BTW this is the real reason why Phil Spencer was so frustrated in the X-Cast interview IMHO).
 

On Demand

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Darth Vader

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I find your lack of faith disturbing
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That means the UK ruling is a worldwide ruling, no matter what the xbots say.
The deal requires the approval of FTC, EC and CMA.
If one of them blocks the deal, it can't be completed.
All in all, the deal remains dead and CMA won't be bullied into approving it.
That's my reading of the whole situation.
Xbots and americans will cry and rage but what do I care?

It's a worldwide rulling because Microsoft cannot pull from the UK.

We knew all this already.
 
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Swift_Star

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Just checked era thread and is a cesspool of meltdowns because of CMA quick reply and some delusions of Microsoft pulling out of the UK.
The ruling made bots more unhinged than ever.
 

Cool hand luke

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Did that fat pig Hogg's Law ever put out a video on the CMA decision like he said he would? I saw him slobbering all over the EU approval. Maybe the rancid meat on their bare bones decision will give him the strength he needs to finally make another video.
 

AshHunter216

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Just checked era thread and is a cesspool of meltdowns because of CMA quick reply and some delusions of Microsoft pulling out of the UK.
The ruling made bots more unhinged than ever.
You would think they'd be happy today after the EU (sorta) threw them a bone. I guess they're always miserable.