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[IbizaPocholo]

Microsoft now says the CMA was “tough and fair” over Activision Blizzard deal

Microsoft eventually got its Activision Blizzard deal over the line in the UK.

www.theverge.com

Microsoft president Brad Smith wasn’t happy with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year, after the regulator blocked Microsoft’s giant Activision Blizzard deal. Now that Microsoft has restructured its deal and won approval in the UK, Smith has kinder words for the CMA, describing the regulator as “tough and fair” in an interview with the BBC’s Radio 4 Today program.

Smith originally criticized the CMA and said confidence in the UK had been “severely shaken” after the regulator moved to block Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal in April last year. He called it the “darkest day” for Microsoft in its four decades of working in Britain, and went a step further, saying “the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business” than the UK.

“I certainly learned a lot personally,” admitted Smith on Radio 4 yesterday. “I wouldn’t step back necessarily from all of the concerns I raised when I talked way back in April, but I might choose slightly different words to make my point.”

The CMA forced Microsoft to restructure its Activision Blizzard deal, giving up key cloud gaming rights in the UK and many other markets worldwide. “The CMA held to a tough standard and I respect that. In my view it was tough and fair,” added Smith. “It pushed Microsoft to change the acquisition that we had proposed for Activision Blizzard, to spin out certain rights that the CMA was concerned about with respect to cloud gaming.”

 

[Topher]

“I wouldn’t step back necessarily from all of the concerns I raised when I talked way back in April, but I might choose slightly different words to make my point.”

 

[Tsaki]

Got to butter them-up now

 

[twilo99]

Easy to say when they won.. it will be a very different tune if they didn’t

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

With that said, here is our next purchase submitted for your approval

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

CMA was great, yea . . .

 

[Hudo]

With that said, here is our next purchase submitted for your approval

Plot twist: Microsoft want to buy the CMA.

 

[Mr Moose]

"After we paid off politicians who then put pressure on the CMA, they were tough and fair".

 

[SEGAvangelist]

With that said, here is our next purchase submitted for your approval

SEGA?

 

[Topher]

SEGA?

 

[Flutta]

”This was just practice for our next acquizoo”

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[RickMasters]

I suppose Ill join in on the fun.


Heres some secret cam footage of what Satya said to Phil in regards to the CMA:

MS response when pressed by GAF crusaders who are trying to ...'save the industry from subscriptions and all digital and acquisition wars (which are already well under way) :

bobby kotick AKA the video game biz equivalent of a trap gawd.... after the ABK acquisition : "yeah...id like one of them new bugattis... in pitfall green..I just made that up...but im rich..so make it a real colour...can I have it with the LV luggage matching the interior, please?..... can I pay in cash? Because?...why not!? Im rich, bisshhh! got dat bill gates monaaaay...fr fr!"

MS execs lining up that paper for that cheddar stack up the next aquision.... "Hey fellas......after we buy sega..... lets buy the Rams, then move them to vegas. this acquisition shit is a doozy!"

 

[LordCBH]

MS is full of shit lol.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

Last November:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/britain-proposes-antitrust-overhaul-after-microsoft-activision-case-2023-11-20/

 

[Mr Hyde]

Career moment for Brad.

 

[NickFire]

A gentleman always give the CMA a reach around. Or something.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Well, yeah, it went the way they wanted.