Microsoft and UK Regulator to Pause Litigation to Work Out Agreement Over Activision Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 11 July 2023 / 2,741 Views
Microsoft won its case against the FTC in the US as Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the preliminary injunction for the FTC. This ruling allows Microsoft to close its Activision Blizzard deal ahead of the current July 18 deadline as the temporary restraining order (TRO) that allows the FTC to appeal the decision has been reduced to three days as it will end on Friday, July 14 at 11:59 pm PT.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the UK did block the deal in April, however, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard has appealed the decision. The hearings for the appeal were set to start on July 24, however, the CMA and Microsoft have decided to pause litigation to work out a new deal.
"After today’s court decision in the U.S., our focus now turns back to the UK," said Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. "While we ultimately disagree with the CMA’s concerns, we are considering how the transaction might be modified in order to address those concerns in a way that is acceptable to the CMA.
"In order to prioritize work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of the litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and the parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect."
Our statement on the mutual request with the CMA for a pause of our appeal in the UK: pic.twitter.com/8Aky2IJjxS
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) July 11, 2023
The UK CMA in a statement said, "We stand ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction in a way that would address the concerns set out in our Final Report.
"In order to be able to prioritise work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and all parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
What else can MS offer since the CMA had the same remedies offered that the EU accepted?
Are the CMA about to screw over gamers in the UK by ensuring ABK games are prohibited from being on Game Pass and xCloud? lol
Lots. Disney to get their purchase of Fox to go through with as much ease as possible gave up large sections of the purchase, giving up the news and sports sides as they just wanted to the film, tv and hulu side. Other than some limited time deals what has MS done to help really? They could have sold some IPs or smaller studios they didn't want that come with the purchase. Depends on what they truely wanted with the purchase.
Well, mobile was the biggest get out of this purchase followed by CoD, but the CMA was clear that their biggest concern, and the only reason why they blocked the deal, was cloud gaming.
So not adding ABK games to xCloud in the UK might be the best solution. Which I mean, in the UK, only 5,000 players at the most at any given time is supported in the UK. So it wouldn't be a huge loss in that area. But this would only affect the UK anyways.
King seemed to be the priority for sure which raises the questions of over why they didn't do more to alleviate the concerns over A and B games and their revenue control outside of "We'll put games on competing streaming services which are pathetic compared to us right now." Selling IP and and studios would do more but just not ones from King or Blizzard that make the sweet mobile money.
Because the CMA didn't have any concerns over anything but CoD and cloud gaming, so MS didn't have to bother with anything else. IPs, studios, the CMA didn't care about any of that.
With how little overall the CMA really cared about, it seems unlikely MS will have to do anything drastic. We'll see over the course of the next week.
That's one way for the CMA to save face.
Yes, I think they are welcoming this more than Microsoft :D
The CMA is a bunch of hypocrites. They refused to even talk to Microsoft about the nature of their concerns, or possible remedies, prior to blocking the deal. When they thought they'd have political cover from the FTC. Now that they don't have that, now they want to talk to Microsoft about modifying the deal and/or other remedies?
Congrats to those who wanted the deal to pass.
Shame that FTC and CMA corruption will go unpunished.
It’s disgraceful that there will be no jail time for the FTC & CMA who have abused their power, to lie endlessly about a legitimate deal, in order to rig the outcome, to also be uncompetitive & anti-consumer, by favouring a dominant market leader, & wasting millions of public money.....
All you had to do was use the word ‘incompetence’ instead of ‘corruption’ and people would probably be agreeing with you on mass (judging by reactions to other comments on these threads).
But because you try to twist it into some conspiracy theory about corruption people end up reacting negatively to your rants.
The EU did it the right way. The CMA and FTC continuily cared more about wether the deal might harm Sony than what they should actually worry about, namely the consumers. And on top of that ghey used a ton of logical falacies and had a bunch of math errors and tried to spin and twist market definitions into prezzels.
If it's not complete incompetence on another level then there's only one other option.
These bots are out of control
