Microsoft had a big win today, with the court siding in their favor against the FTC. This all boils down to Microsoft’s attempt at getting their $69 billion bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. But the only thing in their way has been regulators. Today, Microsoft was able to get through the court case with the FTC to ensure they could proceed with their purchase. Since that approval came, the focus quickly transitioned back over to the CMA. Now it looks like the UK regulator is interested in avoiding the costly courts and dealing with the acquisition once again.
It was just earlier this year that the CMA shut down the idea of Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard. While initially, the investigation was keener on the future of the Call of Duty franchise, CMA struck down the deal because of fear of Microsoft becoming too much of a dominating force in cloud gaming. But since then, Microsoft has continued to strike deals with cloud gaming providers to open up Microsoft’s catalog of titles to be featured on their competitor services. Since the court sided with Microsoft today with the FTC, Microsoft has decided to go ahead and hold off the appeal process for the CMA.
From the CMA’s request, it looks like Microsoft is trying to steer away from the courts as Microsoft is once again able to discuss this acquisition directly with the CMA. Thanks to a report from The Verge, we’re finding out that Microsoft’s Brad Smith, the president of the company, has tweeted out that their decision was in line with the CMA as staying out of the courts would be in the public interest. Both have submitted a submission to refrain from the appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which would have to agree with this decision for the appeal to be put on hold.
Likewise, the CMA provided a statement to The Verge which noted that they are ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction in a way that would address their concerns from their initial final report. Again, the final report had to deal with Microsoft’s control of cloud gaming. So it would be interesting to see if the CMA gives the approval after seeing Microsoft have worked with competitor cloud gaming providers since then to ensure that their franchises would land on competitor platforms.
But again, we’ll just have to wait and see if the CMA goes for these proposals or if Microsoft is forced back into the court system. At any rate, things are looking positive for Microsoft, which means Game Pass could soon find plenty of new titles landing in the subscription service. Although, you’ll still find the likes of Call of Duty landing on other console platforms in the future.
