Microsoft President: UK CMA Was 'Tough and Fair' Over Activision Blizzard Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 January 2024 / 2,984 Views
Microsoft President Brad Smith when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK blocked Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition was not happy, however, now that the regulator changed its decision and ultimately approved the deal he stated the CMA was "tough and fair" in an interview with BBC's Radio 4 Today program.
"I certainly learned a lot personally," Smith told Radio 4 via The Verge. "I wouldn’t step back necessarily from all of the concerns I raised when I talked way back in April, but I might choose slightly different words to make my point."
He added, "The CMA held to a tough standard and I respect that. In my view it was tough and fair. It pushed Microsoft to change the acquisition that we had proposed for Activision Blizzard, to spin out certain rights that the CMA was concerned about with respect to cloud gaming."
Microsoft in order to get the deal approved in the UK had to sell its cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. This was done to address concerns from the CMA over cloud gaming.
The CMA would approve Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition on October 13, 2023 and on the same day Microsoft closed the deal.
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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That's better than acting like a spoilt child like when they first rejected you saying the UK wasn't open for business and threatening to remove investment because the CMA didn't let the 3rd biggest company in the world spend 70billion on a video game company without concessions. Maybe they would have got it done sooner if they acted like this before.
I think you missed some news there or did not understand what happened with the CMA... They never wanted (neither cared about what Microsoft offered as a concession and yes, Microsoft offered multiple ones, including having the right from any cloud provider to get Activision games (and Xbox) license to stream for free). The CMA wanted to block the deal from the start, and Microsoft (like ANY other company) was proper to fight it and not give what they wanted. Even today, the cloud thing is still a ridiculous argument from the CMA. If anything, Microsoft could have Pushed this even further... The CMA was NEVER interested in anything until Microsoft went to the CAT, and this escalated.
And frankly, we have no clue what they said to each other during that period, but one sure thing is that, like Sony, who cried wolves about the acquisition and how it would "destroy" them, Microsoft also did the right thing by pushing as much as they could.
I understand fine. CMA looked at a fledgling market and MS current control on it and said "No" because the concessions offered before wasn't enough for them. They dismissed the market share on consoles thing and focused.
In response, Brad Smith said "There's a clear message here - the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business than the United Kingdom." and a spokesman for MS just after the decision was made saying "...despite all its rhetoric - the UK is clearly closed for business."
They got there in the end by actually doing things to help but these statements were that of a brat not getting their way.
This is about MS crying, not Sony crying.
This is about corporations acting like corporations. Sony, Microsoft, whatever corporations out there. They have to do the right things for the business. And yes, at the time, it was CLEAR that the UK was not the best place to do business if they had blocked the deal. They did not in the end, and now Microsoft is even more brilliant by riding that wave too, and making the UK CMA look good before the next fight. So no, you do not understand what is going on "fine."
Also, I will not argue with you about what is wrong or bad with the deal; this has been beaten down already, and we can see who got the deal closed.
If anything, the brats are the ones thinking that those corporations should act like human beings or something. They are not; they are businesses, and if anything, Microsoft made the right moves; my stocks in Activision paid off, and my stocks in Microsoft can tell you so :D
Not arguing what was good or bad. Never said either. I'm saying maybe MS should act like a professional business by helping regulators by meeting their demands or even, get this, go further than just the bare minimum, instead of crying like they did.
Even you are doing the same saying that UK not being a good place for business just because CMA doesn't approve a deal for MS to buy a video game company. Like what is that logic? A video game company who's own investments in the UK at was like what? 1 studio? Yet MS basically gave an ultimatum to the government that they'd not invest because of it? Petty is all I can say to that.
But as I am in the UK defending it from a petty mega-corporation and you have investments in both MS and ABK so you will make a profit off it. Both our opinions are bias and therefore, this argument is completely pointless.
Alright, let's leave it there then!
Cannot disagree with you, I guess, we have a bit of a bias!
Give it time, I will be. The BBC article on this subject is has the best title "Microsoft boss changes tune after criticism of UK." Cried then, now says "tough and fair".
"I might choose slightly different words to make my point." - Yeah, maybe next time don't make it sound like you are giving the UK government an ultimatum.
He is still -4 on votes for who knows why and imagedvl defending the manchild behavior of MS president got +4 on votes.
For "who knows why"? Well, that's the thing, I explained very CLEARLY why.
So either you do not want to read it, or you cannot understand it.
Plenty of people, including you, DanForrori, have no clue how business and corporations work (or at least act like it) and their purposes and are constantly mixing up stuff and thinking that companies should act like a human being—or pretending that one corporation is so much different than another one and respect gamers and arts and blah blah; or that a corporation is childish for doing something expected from any businesses... etc.
In the end, Microsoft did a hell of a good job; you can be butthurt about it if you want (for reasons we all understand), but hey, Microsoft stock went UP, Activision stock WENT UP, and the JOB of that business is primarily to make those shareholders money.... And now there is NO reason to keep bitching the CMA, quite the opposite, so if you ask me, the people being butthurt about it are the childish ones; Microsoft is just a business. They are doing the exact things ANY business would be expected to do after winning such a big deal and not holding a grudge for no reason like a child would do... In short, thinking that Microsoft should act like a baby and hold a grudge is the very childish thing to do...
It is clear why.
Microsoft is the 2nd biggest company in the world behind Apple, not 3rd, by marketcap at-least.
If we start talking profit or revenue... It falls down the list rather significantly.
Microsoft has a Market Cap of 2.8 Trillion dollars at the moment (Larger than the Australian economy.) which falls behind Apple's 3 Trillion dollar market cap.
To be fair, most the time when I say 2nd or whatever, someone will come along and say "But they are 3rd, Aramco is bigger." :P
2nd, 3rd, 15th, doesn't really matter, the way Brad Smith and his company acted after CMA first rejected wasn't professional. It was petulant. they could have accepted the ruling and said they will appeal and work with CMA to resolve it, like they ended up doing. But no... "WAH WAH" is what we got.
Someone saying that is wrong, though :) Aramco is way behind Microsoft (2.1 or 2.2T)! So do not hesitate to point out their mistakes ;)
Another off-topic thing is that Microsoft may pass Apple again this year; they have some serious traction, and I would not be surprised. Time will tell! (again we are still all talking about Market Cap here, not revenue or profit)
Apple and Microsoft constantly leapfrog each other, Microsoft beat Apple to 2.5 Trillion.
Tech is big money apparently.
Apple just happens to be more consumer facing than Microsoft these days though.
