There was quite a shock last month when it was unveiled that CMA was blocking the Microsoft acquisition. After Microsoft made a $65 billion bid to acquire Activision Blizzard, it was looking likely that the CMA was going to approve the deal. This was a big regulator that Microsoft had to overcome to purchase the company. For months the regulator was going through different stats and saw the reaction of this acquisition bid from the likes of Sony and other competitors.
Again, while it was likely that Microsoft would receive the green light, the CMA returned with the notice of blocking the deal. This was a surprise as it was initially a concern that Call of Duty would become an exclusive for Microsoft which prompted the hesitation of allowing the deal to go through. Overall, it was found by the CMA that this deal would hurt cloud gaming competition.
So now the team over at Microsoft has taken on a new lawyer to deal with the appeal. We’re finding out from a report by Yahoo Finance that Daniel Beard KC was brought out to handle the appeal. This individual also had quite a positive track record for several big-name companies when it came to dealing with the EU.
The report notes that this lawyer helped massive companies deal with several penalties, including Apple and Intel. So it would seem that Daniel Beard would be an excellent candidate to help Microsoft overcome the appeals that will allow the CMA to once again get another look into potentially allowing Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard. Since the issue that suddenly came to a block from CMA had to deal with cloud gaming, it would be interesting to see what new details emerge from Microsoft’s next bout with the CMA.
Already, we had seen companies voice their frustration over the CMA blocking the deal. For instance, one competitor in cloud gaming for Microsoft is Nvidia. After the CMA revealed that they blocked the deal, Nvidia voiced that allowing Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard would further help cloud gaming, including Nvidia’s GeForce Now service. Of course, the appeals will take quite a long time before we get word on whether Microsoft will be able to bring this acquisition back on the table for the regulator to get another look.
At any rate, we’ll just have to see if this lawyer that was added to the team for this appeal will have another successful case to add to his resume. Otherwise, it could be that Microsoft would lose out on this purchase, and Activision Blizzard will not become a first-party studio under the Xbox umbrella.
