Britain shoots down Microsoft’s $69bn Activision deal
“How does a uk court block one American company from buying another American company?” asks a gamer in an online forum, where the chat is more often about high scores than competition law. “We had a war about this, and being independent, can do as we damn well please.”
Sadly for gamers—and global tech firms—that is not so. On April 26th Britain’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (cma), blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a publisher of games such as “Call of Duty”, arguing that the combined firm could gain too much clout and reduce choice for consumers. The surprise decision may have killed the deal worldwide.
The $69bn acquisition, which would have been Microsoft’s largest and one of tech’s biggest ever, had seemed on track. The European Commission was expected to give it the nod next month. America’s Federal Trade Commission (ftc) had objected, but faced a difficult battle in court to stop it. Britain had long been seen as the hardest of the big three regulators to convince. But when in March the cma dismissed concerns from Sony about Microsoft’s advantage in the console market, and after Microsoft signed ten-year deals to make Activision games available on other platforms, it looked like game on.
2023-04-26 14:50:13
Link from www.economist.com
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