Microsoft’s Brad Smith Has Softened On CMA, Calls Them “Tough And Fair”

Microsoft President Brad Smith has softened his stance on the UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, following the Microsoft – Activision deal.

As reported by The Verge, Brad shared this opinion in a new interview with UK media outlet Radio 4:

“I certainly learned a lot personal. 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.

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.”

We won’t review the entire history of the regulation of the Microsoft – Activision deal, but the UK and its CMA was a particularly touchy episode. As we had reported, after the CMA ‘prevented’ the deal for the UK, Brad called the decision “bad for Britain,” and said that the CMA’s decision sent “a message that I think will discourage innovation and investment in the United Kingdom.”

Brad and Microsoft in general were clearly keen to put pressure on the CMA, but what some fans may not remember is that things actually started cooling off as soon as the situation started changing. The UK joined the US and the EU as the three biggest gaming regions that could cancel the deal if they rejected the merger.

The EU went on to approve the deal, with arrangements in place for European cloud gaming companies to receive Xbox cloud gaming for free. The US’ FTC tried to block the deal, but ended up losing in court.

The CMA was also set to face Microsoft in appeals court, but both sides agreed to put a halt to the appeal and compromise. The CMA was doubly pressured by the developments in other regions, as well as by their own UK government, to find an arrangement to allow the deal to go through in the UK.

In the end, the CMA forced Microsoft’s hand to work with Ubisoft to gain cloud gaming rights for Activision, in the UK and the rest of the world. The only exception to this arrangement was EU, which already had binding arrangements in place with smaller cloud gaming providers.

Reading between the lines, Brad may be sincere, but he is also playing the good cop, bad cop routine with the CMA, and the UK government in general. This is likely intended to smooth over continuing relations between the tech company and the country, including the possibility that they may face future regulation.