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 .
Status
Not open for further replies.
PaintTinJr said:
If it is the same deal or worse, that will fail the judge's smell test no matter what words Microsoft use to describe Sony's change of heart, it will show the FTC decision fed the CMA and then that allowed Microsoft to leverage Sony. Judge won't look kindly on that having compromised the CMA, and then the real competition too. Could get people at the CMA disbarred.
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Well I have to say, so far your assertions have consistently shown to be off the mark. I don't see any reason why I should put faith in this one either.

Edit:bad grammer
 
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Ar¢tos said:
FTFY
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Jimmy Fallon Ok GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 
feynoob said:
Hopefully it ends.
I don't want to hear about this deal anymore.
All of us are tired at this point.
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It's going to be all over our xbox dashboards for months "We've always been fans*, now we're family :messenger_heart:"

*except for that time we threw them under the bus to artificially lower their stock price and scope them up at a discount.
 
GHG said:
Which is precisely why Jimbo shouldn't have signed any damn deal.
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Hard disagree.

The only reason to doubt that the CMA had already stood down was the reverence shown to it by people with an idealistic view of civil servants / politicians. It would have been a reckless disservice to Sony shareholders, and customers who play COD every year, to keep standing on principal just because some people don't buy into "big bank take little bank." Any good leader / poker player needs to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them.
 
Topher said:
I'm pretty much in the exact same boat as you. Against the deal, voted that it would go through with behavioral changes, game pass subscriber. And I'm a hypocrite because I'll forgive them for all of it if they bring Lost Vikings back.
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Also fixed that for you.
 
HoofHearted said:
I did - didn't see any reference to "corruption" that you've obviously inferred.. You still seem to be really concerned here about SLC when it's been really clear over the past week now that this deal was trending a completely different way between MS and CMA on a number of fronts...
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The judge repeatedly said he saw no evidence that quashed the standing order from the report, and the CMA providence no evidence for why they went down the Section 40 part 3 path, in fact it looks like Mr Beard was leading them all wrong on the law, when the judge said it was for the CMA to decide if there was a indication of a substantial material difference or special reason, not enough for the merging parties to apply on those terms, hence why we have a conditional adjournment decision.
 
PaintTinJr said:
The judge repeatedly said he saw no evidence that quashed the standing order from the report, and the CMA providence no evidence for why they went down the Section 40 part 3 path, in fact it looks like Mr Beard was leading them all wrong on the law, when the judge said it was for the CMA to decide if there was a indication of a substantial material difference or special reason, not enough for the merging parties to apply on those terms, hence why we have a conditional adjournment decision.
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The person who sat down with the CMA, will have a talk with the judge.
 
tryDEATH said:
It was a B.S reason to block the merger and hang the whole merger on that particular point. If every other agency considers the issue secondary and you make it a primary it clearly makes it B.S as it exaggerates that issue to a level no one else considered.

And it might be an even be bigger B.S. if they don't force MS to address that issue now and grant them the merger as we don't know what deal the CMA and MS have made.
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Your opinion isn't fact. These countries have their own laws and legal proceedings. You're free to disagree with how they handle it, but your opinion doesn't make the process B.S.

The fact is that the issue itself has been brought up by four regulatory bodies. Two of those four have blocked, or are trying to block, the acquisition based on those concerns. The concerns aren't B.S., or other regulatory bodies who had the same concerns would be lambasted as well. You're being hyperbolic because you're pro-acquisition. You need to calm down.

Topher said:
Just sayin, bro.....
Talk Talking To Myself GIF by Facepunch Studios
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M16 said:
what a twist. today the CMA and MS were tag team partners against the CAT. who could have wrote it?
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That is the strangest part of today's events for me. Asking for the time to work out a solution was expected, but the tone of the arguments in the little of that I watched was surprising, MS and CMA came across as co defendants or something here, LOL.

Also, what was with way they all wanted to keep pointing out that no new deal had actually changed hands, it seemed like that was an extremely important sticking point for all involved? Was it against the law for the CMA and MS to workout a solution before today?
 
Topher said:
Eh.....perhaps it will be delayed, but I'll need someone more reputable than Tom Warren to say so.
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I agree. I can't see a reason it would be delayed. No way CMA can comeback now and say "oopsies, MS did not concede enough to make the deal go through." Let's get it over with and see where were are 10 years from now.
 
reinking said:
I agree. I can't see a reason it would be delayed. No way CMA can comeback now and say "oopsies, MS did not concede enough to make the deal go through." Let's get it over with and see where were are 10 years from now.
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And yet, nothing would surprise me at this point. We've been all over this map, haven't we?
 
Topher said:
"You guys"? Uh....no. That was coming from many the legal experts and scholars who were saying repeatedly that the CMA was "unappealable". Guess it was our fault for believing them though.
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I'd argue that most of those experts weren't legal experts or just failed to use their experiences in the real world to see it.

But more importantly politics are always involved if you go high enough up the food chain. This argument went way up there and was bound to draw attention. People willfully ignored this.
 
Kilau said:
It's going to be all over our xbox dashboards for months "We've always been fans*, now we're family :messenger_heart:"

*except for that time we threw them under the bus to artificially lower their stock price and scope them up at a discount.
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It would be cool to have a show kinda like they did with Bethesda. Though I'd prefer Bobby and Booty not be part of it. They'd just ruin it.

But Phil and Ybarra back again? Maybe Ferguson. Sarah Bond.

They can leave out Aaron Greenberg too though I know they won't. He's so cringe.
 
Banjo64 said:
I'm surprised Beard didn't just tell the judge that Microsoft can just make the UK a third world country TBH. Seems strange that Microsoft are seemingly abiding by the rules.
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Their president put MS in a bigger position.
While his act is childish, his skills are top notch.
Today is example of that.

 
Jigsaah said:
It would be cool to have a show kinda like they did with Bethesda. Though I'd prefer Bobby and Booty not be part of it. They'd just ruin it.

But Phil and Ybarra back again? Maybe Ferguson. Sarah Bond.

They can leave out Aaron Greenberg too though I know they won't. He's so cringe.
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I cant wait for a personalized message from Bobby to Gamepass subscribers
 
DaGwaphics said:
That is the strangest part of today's events for me. Asking for the time to work out a solution was expected, but the tone of the arguments in the little of that I watched was surprising, MS and CMA came across as co defendants or something here, LOL.

Also, what was with way they all wanted to keep pointing out that no new deal had actually changed hands, it seemed like that was an extremely important sticking point for all involved? Was it against the law for the CMA and MS to workout a solution before today?
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It's because through working together they can both get what they want. The CMA can back down without appearing "weak" and Microsoft can get the deal over the line via divesting some trivial areas of Activision Blizzard that they don't really care about and were going to restructure (shut down) sooner or later anyway.
 
DaGwaphics said:
That is the strangest part of today's events for me. Asking for the time to work out a solution was expected, but the tone of the arguments in the little of that I watched was surprising, MS and CMA came across as co defendants or something here, LOL.

Also, what was with way they all wanted to keep pointing out that no new deal had actually changed hands, it seemed like that was an extremely important sticking point for all involved? Was it against the law for the CMA and MS to workout a solution before today?
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I didn't have much of an issue with it since they both wanted the the trial postponed so it makes sense they would semi work together. The more shocking part to me was at the end. CMA agreeing to look over and have a decision by 5:00pm tomorrow just in time for MS to close was ridiculous. Even the judge was like "WTF?".

Alex Scott said:
What did MS offer?
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That's the big question and what everyone is waiting to see. Hard to decide if CMA caved or not until we have that answer.
 
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splattered said:
I voted yes with behavioral... so this would end up being a behavioral change and not a structural one? What about the divestment of UK cloud everyone has been talking about? Not super following today busy with work and it's my birthday.

OH WAIT... didn't i at one point ask you guys if you wanted this to go through on my birthday or not? haha whoa..
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So you are to blame for this!? That was your damn birthday wish???

Happy Birthday :messenger_heart:
 
splattered said:
I voted yes with behavioral... so this would end up being a behavioral change and not a structural one? What about the divestment of UK cloud everyone has been talking about? Not super following today busy with work and it's my birthday.

OH WAIT... didn't i at one point ask you guys if you wanted this to go through on my birthday or not? haha whoa..
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florian-7.gif
 
GHG said:
Same vibes as that other guy who popped in earlier to talk about "politics".

By "politics" they mean corruption, the very same corruption that they were on their knees begging to happen when the CMA blocked the deal. But apparently now that things have unfolded how they have people shouldn't talk about there being any possibility of corruption. Strange that.
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It's not necessarily corruption. There's a lot dealing when it comes to nations and big business. All it takes is for someone to say "hey were working with MS, or Senator so and so, on this deal and we don't want things to get ugly. Can you stop making a big deal out of call of duty?".

That's not corruption, it's just how the real world works.
 
Oh well looks like it's probably going through after all (I voted that it wouldn't).

Now here's to hoping Sony doesn't do anything foolish.... like attempting an acquisition war with Microsoft that it cannot and would not win.
 
wolffy66 said:
It's not necessarily corruption. There's a lot dealing when it comes to nations and big business. All it takes is for someone to say "hey were working with MS, or Senator so and so, on this deal and we don't want things to get ugly. Can you stop making a big deal out of call of duty?".

That's not corruption, it's just how the real world works.
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The classic it's not "corruption", it just depends on who is involved in said corruption. When it's people we like we call it "the real world" but when it's not, what do we call it? Ah yes, that's right:

en.wikipedia.org

Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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wolffy66 said:
It's not necessarily corruption. There's a lot dealing when it comes to nations and big business. All it takes is for someone to say "hey were working with MS, or Senator so and so, on this deal and we don't want things to get ugly. Here's a big truck of cash or some form of compensation in a less traceable format, can you stop making a big deal out of call of duty?".

That's not corruption, it's just how the real world works.
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Fixed that for you. What you're skirting around is "lobbying", which itself is just a euphemism for bribery, which itself typically generates corruption, thereby perpetuating lobbying -> more bribery -> more corruption.
 
supernova8 said:
Oh well looks like it's probably going through after all (I voted that it wouldn't).

Now here's to hoping Sony doesn't do anything foolish.... like attempting an acquisition war with Microsoft that it cannot and would not win.
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What do you propose they do? Two publishers have already been bought by Microsoft. I would bet the farm that Microsoft will not stop at ABK. Lie low for a while?

Sure, but they'll come roaring back with the blank check in time for someone else. They were basically already shopping like that before ABK. All that dirty laundry came out in the FTC trial.

I mean, I don't want to see an acquisition war either, but the likelihood of it happening is probably fairly high.
 
It's a bit weird how divesting COD/ABK cloud market rights in the UK would work. A new entity whose sole reason to exist is to make money off it or another company who buys it from MS? And then what, you still need a consumer who buys the game from a supported platform for licensing purposes. What about microtransactions?

It sounds awfully similar to what the EC asked for, but more complicated, and the EC still hasn't disclosed how they are going to make it work either.
 
supernova8 said:
Fixed that for you. What you're skirting around is "lobbying", which itself is just a euphemism for bribery, which itself typically generates corruption, thereby perpetuating lobbying -> more bribery -> more corruption.
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But that's all ok. It's "how the world works" or some such euphemism people come up with to justify corruption for the sake of mega-rich corporations.
 
I have to say this thread has become a really fun and entertaining place, thanks guys! For or against there have been some brilliant and informative posts within here and I've learned quite a lot from far smarter people than myself 🫡
 
Thirty7ven said:
It's a bit weird how divesting COD/ABK cloud market rights in the UK would work. A new entity whose sole reason to exist is to make money off it or another company who buys it from MS? And then what, you still need a consumer who buys the game from a supported platform for licensing purposes. What about microtransactions?

It sounds awfully similar to what the EC asked for, but more complicated, and the EC still hasn't disclosed how they are going to make it work either.
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CMA could have demanded a better outcome. They stuck with cloud, which limited their option.
Blocking due to cloud was stupid in the first place.
 
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