The CMA also had to walk that back because of poor market analysis. Hinging a decision to protect a barely extant cloud gaming market on the divestment of a twitch shooter which plays like shit over streaming is an odd case to make. The CMA does not always win at the CAT. It will be interesting to see how the appeal plays out.
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Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)
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The CMA also had to walk that back because of poor market analysis. Hinging a decision to protect a barely extant cloud gaming market on the divestment of a twitch shooter which plays like shit over streaming is an odd case to make. The CMA does not always win at the CAT. It will be interesting to see how the appeal plays out.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Approval in Europe: Update on the Microsoft deal
Regulators in Europe approved the Microsoft merger. "We achieved an important milestone," Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick writes.newsroom.activisionblizzard.com
Guess no "press the red button" threats from Kotick today. He can kick back with his gold coins and side-eye the sexual harassment filings.
Topher
Identifies as young
Apparently the conclusion that this acquisition could harm competition in cloud services is both stupid and brilliant at the same time.
PaintTinJr
Member
I don't think it was for their own benefit, but so that Khan at the FTC can cite the CMA response in court.
feynoob
Banned
So it's normal business then.
Topher
Identifies as young
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Astray
Member
They already could though.
jm89
Member
The other thing is it will shut down a expected narrative that the CMA could feel pressured.
Their response was amazing.
Rick Dangerous
Banned
Hi, Can someone tells me what The status IS concerning FTC and EU ? I Saw CMA ruling, but not thé FTC or EU.
If they haven't ruled yet, when are rulings are expected ?
If they haven't ruled yet, when are rulings are expected ?
Astray
Member
EU accepted just now.
FTC is trying to block this, but it will be through a court case that starts in August.
Dick Jones
Banned
You sure? They dropped divestment as an option as MS dropped it as a solution offered to them. Why waste time adding something that MS ignored? They dropped the console part as they were less sound on that section and dropped anything that could lead to the CAT overturning it. If anything Xbox and MS would have hoped the console aspect remained when appealing. The CMA future proofed their correct decision.
When the CMA dropped the console part, they reminded MS about the cloud issue. That should have rang alarm bells with MS lawyers to fucking fo something. It didn't, but you get what you pay for when they mix up the Man of Steel with Spider-Man.
Topher
Identifies as young
EU - Approved with conditions
CMA - Blocked. Awaiting appeal. Timeline TBD
FTC - Blocking (in process). Pending administrative judge trial this fall.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Rick Dangerous
Banned
Ah, and very satisfied with the CMA ruling. But those dumbass EU regulators, I'm afraid they don't see MS endgame. Lobbying is too intense from the big huperscalers... (I'm European fyi). And I don't expect anything good from the FTC (biden is so pro GAFAM).
Unknown Soldier
Member
So you are pretending that CMA and EU didn't reach the same conclusions but only differed on the remedies? The CMA isn't going to walk anything back now that the EU agreed with them on the principles of the market action. The EU allowing the deal to go through with these shitty 10 year deals as remedies instead of just blocking is just EU corruption in action and that isn't going to win MS the case on appeal in the UK.
graywolf323
Member
not the only one, noticing a lot of users posting & reacting to posts that largely have been missing since the CMA decision until now
Rick Dangerous
Banned
Thanks.
Oh shit EU approved ! Those fucking morons, they really don't understand shit. Disgusted. Have my own antitrust authorities...
PaintTinJr
Member
Surely that depends on what gets admitted into evidence? If the EC report was admitted, but the CMA report denied - as it was currently under appeal - then the FTC can introduce the CMA report via the backdoor, by citing their response to the EC report, which then could lead to introducing the CMA report to back up the CMA citation - is what I was thinking.
Topher
Identifies as young
That "twitch shooter" isn't available over streaming so how would you know it plays like shit?
Dick Jones
Banned
The FTC were chatting with the EC. I hope Bobby Kotick calls this sickening shit out
parsec.app
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
I don't think Biden's preferences matter at all here; it's the FTC handling the acquisition here, not the DOJ.
3P app, very unreliable and results can vary highly from game to game.
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Astray
Member
Biden appointed Lina Khan tho.
Rick Dangerous
Banned
This exactly. There has to be some kind of corruption. Is doesn't make any sense in regards to protecting competition in EU. Arrggg
Topher
Identifies as young
A remote desktop app? Are you serious?
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
True. If anything though seems like that would make him more partial to back the FTC's decision, not push against it.
graywolf323
Member
what? why? they had a deadline, Microsoft only has themselves to blame for thumbing their noses at the CMA and thinking they could get it through without actually trying to address their concerns
Download it and try it out. I know that you only took a cursory glance before firing that comment off. It's such a good "remote desktop app" that much of the creative industry adopted it during covid for editing and other low latency tasks.
Dick Jones
Banned
If Bobby Kotick doesn't call out the FTC and the EC talking, he is allowing the FTC and the CMA to have the chats. This will backfire on him now.
Topher
Identifies as young
A cursory glance was all I needed to recognize an entirely anecdotal statement.
PaintTinJr
Member
It is quite telling that the interviewer understood the importance and dangers of the merger 10x more that the EC interviewee by her questioning.
The comment regarding cloud gaming being 1-3% of gaming implies that high-end gaming on console and cloud aren't uniquely different product offerings from the rest of the market, but there you see it first hand the interviewee knows nothing from a consumer perspective and is just quoting the stats like they actually mean anything.
FalsettoVibe
Member
So MS is now going to spin their wheels for the next year in courts trying to get this deal to pass?
Varteras
Member
Yeah. As if the CMA has nothing better to do than hear Microsoft out every time they have another idea for a remedy that still doesn't address their concerns. The CMA pretty much spelled it out. To them, there is no solution that addresses their concern about Microsoft dominating an emerging gaming market through this acquisition. The only course of action is to tell them no.
Confidently ignorant is a bad look. All streaming boils down to "remote desktop applications optimized for latency". I've played COD streaming over parsec from both my home and AWS. Your accusation should be satisfied.
TheGodfather07
Member
This is sad because it'll give people hope again... before crushing those hopes all over again!
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
What, pray tell, is the 'consumer perspective' here that you're referring to ?
The legal posturing will continue until July. Then we'll know how serious MS and Activision are and what they truly think of their chances.
Market conditions around the deal have totally changed for both.
JackMcGunns
Member
I'm confused by this comment. Insomniac was NOT a Sony studio, so they didn't "create their own" they used money to purchase it. If you combine all the studios that Sony has purchased over the years, that adds up to more than Activision/Blizzard. MS vs Sony acquisitions is the same frog in the pot scenario, except one increased the temperature slowly.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
The part where the consumer has chosen the EU market.
NickFire
Member
It's a good question. My initial understanding was that if it does not close by sometime in summer Activision can demand break up fee. But it's hard to know what is and is not speculation / conjecture. And Activision might have obligations or incentive to extend deadlines for all I know.
gothmog
Gold Member
Yep. Most of these mergers that do fail are because it's not worth continuing, not because they exhausted every avenue to succeed.
dotnotbot
Member
Why should we add them up if Microsoft has already bought more studios in the past 10 years then Sony? MS also did a lot of acquisitions.
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Thirty7ven
Banned
Their whole buy COD on Xbox and have a license to stream it on Luna is jokes too. You are giving MS free license to set pricing terms.
Basically you have to buy the game first, and then all microtransaction money is 100% MS’s. Which means competing services won’t get ANY revenue from COD which is NOT an industry standard.
Are you watching a different video than the one linked? That's a wild conclusion to draw based on what was said.
PaintTinJr
Member
The perspective that most of what the 97% of gaming (smartphones, jigsaw on PC, Tetris, etc) has no bearing on the dangers and anti-competitive shenanigans of the acquisition of ATVIs high-end console gaming catalogue of games being bought by Microsoft.
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Mr Moose
Member
4 big ones have to approve it, if any one of them don't, it's over. One of them has said no.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
That may be a point of discussion but EU's main concern was cloud and CMA blocked for the reason of cloud, the '1 to 3 %' market is the focal point here.
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Pachter was right, what a time to be alive.
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DeepEnigma
Gold Member
It's not about today, you know this. It's about in 10 years.
Especially when today owns 70% of cloud infrastructure in the word. The EU are licking their chops at the fines they will levy in 10 years.
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