CMA: Negotiations With Microsoft Are 'at an Early Stage' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 12 July 2023 / 3,225 Views
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK in April blocked Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition, 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.
CMA media officer Billy Proudlock in a statement sent to The Verge said discussions with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are "at an early stage" and the two companies are considering how the transaction could be modified.
"Whilst merging parties don’t have the opportunity to put forward new remedies once a final report has been issued, they can choose to restructure a deal, which can lead to a new merger investigation," said Proudlock.
"Microsoft and Activision have indicated that they are considering how the transaction might be modified, and the CMA is prepared to engage with them on this basis. These discussions remain at an early stage and the nature and timing of next steps will be determined in due course. While both parties have requested a pause in Microsoft’s appeal to allow these discussions to take place, the CMA decision set out in its final report still stands."
CNBC journalist David Faber reported yesterday Microsoft and the CMA had reached an agreement, however, they admit that was wrong and said Microsoft has offered a small divestiture, but the CMA hasn't agreed to anything yet.
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.
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Still far from over.....just make it end!!!
Wouldn’t put it past these corrupt CMA lairs if this “negotiation” is just a stalling tactic. If the deal can’t be illegally blocked like they’ve tried so long to do, then delay & annoy Microsoft as long as possible.
As if incessant liars can be trusted all of a sudden. Fool me twice……shame on me.
Doubt that it would transpire in an eventual second CAT appeal and the optics would even be less in their favor than in the current halted proceeding.
IMO they have no confidence in their finding and were building on the hope the FTC can lend them credence but with the FTC's likeliness of succeeding being shattered, they'd have a hard time defending the reasonability of their decision. Even though that reasonability had to be judged so unreasonable that any other person giving the same information would not have come up with their conclusion, that's kind of exactly what was happening.
So now they're just saving face, getting MS to concede anything small that will give the appearance of victory, and call it a day. In the end, it still speeds up things for MS cause even if they'd win the CAT appeal the most likely scenario was to get a quash of phase 2 which would have to begin from the ground up in October/November. Now processes may start in a few weeks and may only need phase 1 which can be only a few weeks long.
