Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)

Do you believe the deal will be approved?

  • Yes, will be approved without changes.

    Votes: 221 24.9%

  • Yes, will be approved but with structural changes to ABK.

    Votes: 102 11.5%

  • Yes, will be approved but only with behavioral concessions.

    Votes: 262 29.6%

  • No, will not be approved.

    Votes: 301 34.0%
  • Total voters
    886
  • Poll closed .
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POKEYCLYDE said:
I think Microsoft could make some solid arguments that the CMA acted irrational. Coming to their conclusion with a lack of evidence and disregarding all the RCBs for unknown and/or non-existent future harms. If CAT review agrees and sends it back to the CMA, the CMA would need hard evidence of future harm which just doesn't exist. Without the cloud concern, console is already off the table, so the CMA would have no reason to block.
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I'm not sure what you're alluding too here. But as a UK citizen you should know that we don't take kindly to being slighted or belittled by foreign organisations. Least of all Microsoft who regularly come up in our UK discussions of tax evasion and anti trust behaviour.

Lulu and Kotick have already created prejudice here via various denigrating statements about the way we govern and regulate our own economy. Essentially they've called the regulator a bitch before asking the same regulator to rule in their favour. How do you think that's going to play out here?
 
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ArcaneNLSC said:
What I'm surprised about is no one has mentioned that their logo is the Star Trek USS Enterprise
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I mean, all the best piracy or ad strongarm stopping mirror apps come from Ukraine/Russia. Based SmartTube.

But we all know they were Romanian the day before that pathetic "a wIn fOr uKrAiNe" virtual signaling announcement ;)
 
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ArcaneNLSC said:
What I'm surprised about is no one has mentioned that their logo is the Star Trek USS Enterprise
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That makes sense. They emailed Jim Ryan an update on the MS/ABK deal with this
PSa6xK8.jpg
 
Badlucktroll said:
That 3 billion microsoft might have to pay is gonna piss the board off sum'n awful, like, rethink the buisness awful
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Breakup fees are commonplace things and companies enter merger agreements fully aware of the consequences of a failed merger. It's not really a big deal at all and shouldn't be made into one. They are just the cost of doing business in the M&A space.

AT&T had to pay a breakup fee when they tried and failed to acquire Sprint. A few years later, T-Mobile successfully merged with them instead.

Nvidia had to pay a breakup fee when they tried and failed to acquire ARM.
 
The fanatical intensity of the corporate cheerleading is frankly, stunning to me.

I mean, objectively, what's the value to consumers that's being fought over? There is nothing restraining MS from achieving the same result without purchasing ABK.
They just need to make a bunch of deals with the current (MS friendly) management team at ABK to get their product on their services. Furthermore I fail to see any evidence that ABK need MS' financial muscle to expand and flourish.

The honest truth is that beyond giving MS more control over the market, there's no upside to anyone beyond the execs and stock-holders getting a short-term premium from the buyout.

Its pretty nutty really.
 
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I have purposefully avoided commenting on this topic; mainly because it was a cess pit.

But as a UK citizen, I'm really not impressed by Microsoft's comments. Putting gaming aside, our country has been degraded due to the excess amount of profiting that has been allowed to happen. Hence why we are one of the worst performing G7 countries.

So for once I'm glad we've stopped another huge company from consolidating even further. Microsoft have all the resources in the world, and as many have said, perhaps it's time they actually build an attractive proposition.
 
"I was surprised to learn that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA had a meeting a week and a half ago in Washington. You know, legally, you're not supposed to be discussing active litigation. I don't know that they did," Kotick said in the interview.

"I think that that's what you're seeing now is that the CMA is being used as a tool by the FTC to be able to create these kinds of outcomes, and it this isn't the way that they're supposed to be operating."
pNL9-iMPtjF4DDfACY5fnowilVQw8jb3woj4d1ZoP1c.jpg


this guy is something else, no wonder jimbo ignored his calls
 
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mansoor1980 said:
"I was surprised to learn that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA had a meeting a week and a half ago in Washington. You know, legally, you're not supposed to be discussing active litigation. I don't know that they did," Kotick said in the interview.

"I think that that's what you're seeing now is that the CMA is being used as a tool by the FTC to be able to create these kinds of outcomes, and it this isn't the way that they're supposed to be operating."
pNL9-iMPtjF4DDfACY5fnowilVQw8jb3woj4d1ZoP1c.jpg


this guy is something else, no wonder jimbo ignored his calls
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MS and ABK really deserve each other when you think about it.
 
JTCx said:
The usual suspects have been awfully quiet around here.
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I'm just sitting here remembering all those infographics of ABK games under MS....and that huge one with Xbox Studios, Bethesda and ABK.

All that work.....for nothing.

So many ppl posting like its was a done deal and what MS were gonna do with ABK, how their revenue was gonna look sooo goood with ABK included. What Sony were gonna have to deal with, etc, etc.

All that energy...for nothing.

From day one I treated it like insider rumors. Nothings official...until it is. Even the last day before the decision, one of my last posts was...'whatever the decision is'....and some ppl STILL wanted to say its done, move on. Ppl having historic meltdowns did this to themselves.

Fanboyism is a disease.
 
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Thirty7ven said:
It just seems that from everything that has happened, and having followed the whole process, the CMA did its due diligence and the way back for MS/ABK is hard to even imagine.

The way MS has escalated its rhetoric already speaks to what they think of their chances, and the UK government responding so quickly doesn't bode well at all.

It also paved the way for EC and FTC. Don't forget EC was already asking weird shit like a download option for their cloud solutions.

Stages of grief are in motion imo
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Reality is the regulators can see monopolistic intent in Microsoft's actions as they try to take gaming while also controlling the upstream cloud technology and the downstream 70% marketshare of cloud while simultaneously trying to shut Sony out of competitiveness in the console space and by extension future competitiveness in Cloud. They are not looking too fondly on buying entire chunks of an already effective industry just do Microsoft can play

UK regulators have done a great job, and focused in their case to where Microsoft is most vulnerable. But make no mistake, Microsoft's intent is much larger than Xcloud and the regulators are aware

All 3 will now hone in on this

Microsoft lose nothing but the 3 billion fee to ABK. They still get ABK games as they have been. The only reason Xbox fans give a damn is they saw all Blizzard and non COD games going exclusive and COD after 10 years
 
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