Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

FatKaz

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I think the judge also said if MS and ABK merged now, given that they wouldn't be heavily mixed together, it would be easy to forcibly undo the merger if something bad came up from a later investigation.
I find this crazy tbh. Did she forget if they merged now they would also have to close over the CMA? Which is illegal and she would be the enabler for that.

I wasn't following this last hearing yesterday and haven't see the transcripts for this bit. I very well hope FTC pointed that out.
 
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nongkris

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The FTC's doing much better on cloud arguments than the console ones. Bringing up good points that MS conveniently offered no contracts on cloud for Google and Amazon.
Cloud argument should of been the main argument. Seems everybody agrees with the potential harms there.

From what I hear, the tone shifted more towards the FTC when the subject of the cloud came up.

Kinda wild that one judge with no expertise in the tech industry, videogame industry or economics is going to be the sole decider for the preliminary injunction of a 69 billion dollars acquisition.

She had 4-5 days of hearings, evidence and lawyers bullshitting arguments left and right to make her decision.

UK system seems much more robust for consumer protection, with them having actual experts go through all the evidence for many months.
Agreed to all of this, but especially that the FTC deserves to lose because they allowed MS lawyers to strategically turn this into a PlayStation and Xbox car fight vs what we already knew the judge would agree with, CLOUD. Just so boneheaded from them why would this judge understand the intricacies of the console market when every mom and dad can understand how MS is a duopoly in the cloud.

It’s also wild to be that someone who openly admitted her son worked for one of the defendants during the case wasn’t immediately taken off of it
 
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Two considerations:

I still think the FTC won't win the injunction

Both MS and ABK need to agree to close the deal without regulatory approval, and Bobby Kotick doesn't seem to be very interested in even closing the deal at this stage.
 

FatKaz

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Agreed to all of this, but especially that the FTC deserves to lose because they allowed MS lawyers to strategically turn this into a PlayStation and Xbox car fight vs what we already knew the judge would agree with, CLOUD. Just so boneheaded from them why would this judge understand the intricacies of the console market when every mom and dad can understand how MS is a duopoly in the cloud.

It’s also wild to be that someone who openly admitted her son worked for one of the defendants during the case wasn’t immediately taken off of it
I think it's a strategic play that could work in their favour.

They've used the console arguments to show how untrustworthy ms are, and if the PI gets rejected it will be mostly linked to the console concerns, and they've essentially sacrificed that SLC.

Whilst with the cloud concerns they've not delved deep enough and there are still arguements left, so the PI getting rejected won't sink the cloud SLC. They can still fight that angle hard in the full trial.

Even though cloud was covered during the hearing briefly, they waited last minute to really throw the haymakers and seems like some doubt has been cast on the actual deals. Also the judge seems to see cloud gaming as market which will really aid the CMA imo.

At this point we have multiple jurisdictions seeing cloud gaming as a market, which reinforces CMAs position. CAT going against that could be irrational.
 
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FatKaz

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SMH I can't believe she said this.

Alot of people may have $1000 dollar laptops to work from home. Those probably run on an embedded GPU on the CPU or some potatoe GPU. They aren't suitable for gaming at all, or at least not for playing modern cod games.
 
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Aidendelaney95

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How are things looking? Had to drop out of keeping track before the conversation turned to the cloud argument.
 

riesgoyfortuna

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This sorry ass idiot must be one of the most dishonest Motherfuckers on that thread alongside with vigilante joker, also its funny how New users come to that thread spouting the same checkpoints
 

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FatKaz

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Lol what an absolute clown show.

These companies when signing for that 10 year deal on toilet paper

giphy.gif
 

ultimateFF

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Two considerations:

I still think the FTC won't win the injunction

Both MS and ABK need to agree to close the deal without regulatory approval, and Bobby Kotick doesn't seem to be very interested in even closing the deal at this stage.
Because Bobby was already prepared for the deal to be dead. I mean, Variety pieces to prop up Kotick image, all those ABK controversies already being washed out, the share prices already back to normal. If I'm Kotick, I'm gonna drag this to the deal expired date, and ask for more money beyond $70 billion, because the price has just gone up, and MS fear that lol.
 

Loy310

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The rats are losing hope


He is not being honest. I think its 50/50. FTC sets up with console slc to show how untrustworthy ms was. MS did a good job disputing console slc, but at the same time admits to being shady due to emails.
Then the ftc closed with cloud knowing they already built up and pulled off ms mask. I guess the hope is the monster reveled under that mask is enough for the judge to say.
“we cant grant pi for consoles, but a pi is granted for cloud”

Fingers crossed.