Microsoft’s legal team now expects the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to formally oppose its long-planned $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard. That’s according to “four people briefed on the issue,” citing many paragraphs in a New York Times article on the direction of globalized antitrust regulation. It said it expected a “deep” investigation of the deal by the European Union would make it easier to accept “potential remedies”. With these processes taking place on the other side of the Atlantic, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is more content to limit its response to administrative lawsuits than to issue emergency injunctions that can impede trade progress. And it seems.
Representatives from Microsoft and Activision have not yet provided public comment on Ars Technica’s request.
british bulldog with teeth
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority first objected to Microsoft’s proposed takeover last July, before escalating to a detailed “Phase 2” investigation in September. In announcing the move, UK regulators expressed concern that the deal could lead to a “significant reduction in competition” in the markets for consoles, subscription gaming services and cloud gaming. .
The commission recently extended the statutory deadline for completing its investigation by eight weeks, pushing its final date to April 26. However, Bloomberg reports that preliminary findings from that study are expected to be published as early as this week.
Since its establishment following Britain’s controversial exit from the European Union, the UK CMA has become an international leader in thwarting anti-competitive mega-mergers. And negative decisions from the CMA could be particularly damaging to Microsoft and Activision, as the UK Competition Court of Appeals rarely reverses decisions of regulators.
While the CMA’s decision could not technically be applied internationally, the move to prevent a combined Microsoft/Activision from operating in the UK could hurt deals in other jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, the EU reportedly issued a formal opposition statement to Microsoft this week, giving Microsoft several weeks to respond.
