UK Blocks Microsoft / Blizzard Merger

[Edge-]

I don't pretend to fully grasp what's going on but the CMA sending passive aggressive tweets in response to the EU's decision is pretty funny.

https://twitter.com/CMAgovUK/status/1658131200181952516

Passive aggressive? Seems like a simple response/clarification of their position to me. One they may feel compelled to provide given how much criticism and how many Very Informed Criticisms they've received from gamers who want to play Cowaduty on Game Pass.

[Jtbrig7390]

Do I need to spell it out for you? There you go- Microsoft will appeal, and the CMA will let it slide this time.

Do I need to spell it out for you, no they won't. They even outright said so today when the news about the EU dropped.

https://twitter.com/CMAgovUK/status/1658131200181952516

[The Oblivion]

100% the CMA is going to back down and this deal IS going to happen. anyone saying otherwise is oblivious to how the world works.

[Nymrohd]

Not how this works, the CMA gets final say period.

I will say this and I hope it doesn't happen (because it is corrupt, not because I agree with the CMA). It is not inconceivable that the CMA could back down if there is political pressure from the UK government. I don't think Microsoft would go that far though; it has invested heavily in presenting itself as a good partner to state agencies. And I don't mean MS trying to pressure the UK, more like making them some decent offer. But it would be very hard to do and not make it obvious. Just that my opinion of the current UK government is fairly low so I don't think it's impossible for them.

[Curbstomp171]

https://twitter.com/CMAgovUK/status/1658131200181952516

Passive aggressive? Seems like a simple response/clarification of their position to me. One they may feel compelled to provide given how much criticism and how many Very Informed Criticisms they've received from gamers who want to play Cowaduty on Game Pass.

Its insecurity, the CMA are under heavy pressure including from their own Prime Minister, tomorrow they have to appear in front of the Business and Trade comittee

The UK parliament is NOT happy with the CMA right now

https://twitter.com/FOSSpatents/stat...69243529400322

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100% the CMA is going to back down and this deal IS going to happen. anyone saying otherwise is oblivious to how the world works.

It always was, its fine to block deals that need to be blocked, the entire world regulators and tech industry was against Nvidia/Arm

The entire world except for the UK and the entire gaming industry except for Sony are fine with the ABK deal

The CMA were always going to lose the appeal based off pure stupidity of their arguments

[Pann]

Its insecurity, the CMA are under heavy pressure including from their own Prime Minister, tomorrow they have to appear in front of the Business and Trade comittee

The UK parliament is NOT happy with the CMA right now

https://twitter.com/FOSSpatents/stat...69243529400322

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It always was, its fine to block deals that need to be blocked, the entire world regulators and tech industry was against Nvidia/Arm

The entire world except for the UK and the entire gaming industry except for Sony are fine with the ABK deal

The CMA were always going to lose the appeal based off pure stupidity of their arguments

The meeting with the select committee scheduled tomorrow is most likely to do with CMA action to contain cost of living pressures - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/c...ving-pressures

There is nothing to suggest that the PM or anyone in government is unhappy that CoD will not be on Gamepass.

[Curbstomp171]

Yes and there is ZERO chance that happens.

This deal isn't as big to MS as the gaming community (not you) seems to think it is. They wouldn't kill their company over it and since the CMA already blocked it once (and has said they are standing firm on that). The deal is dead no matter what anyone else says.

If MS plans to keep fighting it they have to renegotiate their deal with ABK as well since the sale was suppose to end next month.

TLDR: Unless the CMA changes their mind (they likely won't) the deal is dead.

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Not how this works, the CMA gets final say period. Read the thread and learn what your talking about before posting.

You have no idea what you are talking about lol

The CMA HAS to abide by the ruling of the Competition Appeal Tribunal

Straight from the Enterprise Act of 2002

(5)The Competition Appeal Tribunal may—
(a)dismiss the application or quash the whole or part of the decision to which it relates; and
(b)where it quashes the whole or part of that decision, refer the matter back to the original decision maker with a direction to reconsider and make a new decision in accordance with the ruling of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.


What CAT is able to do is throw out/quash arguments that the CMA makes (and they are going to throw out A LOT of them) the biggest ones being

-Cloud gaming being a separate market and how the CMA calculated cloud marketshare

-The CMA claiming ABK would have put games on a streaming service if they remained third party without any evidence

-Microsoft having the incentive to forclose cloud streaming rivals (they argued this with consoles and MS making COD exclusive but the CMA math was so bad they had to drop it)

When CAT quashes these arguments, even if it goes back to the CMA they cannot use the same arguments or theories of harm again, since MS/ABK is a rare merger that only has one theory of harm, once its gone there's no grounds to block

And no....the CMA cannot block because they want to, they need evidence to do so

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The meeting with the select committee scheduled tomorrow is most likely to do with CMA action to contain cost of living pressures - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/c...ving-pressures

There is nothing to suggest that the PM or anyone in government is unhappy that CoD will not be on Gamepass.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rishi...member_android

"The work of the Competition and Markets Authority - Oral evidence"

Its literally in the title...what "oral evidence" does the CMA have to provide regarding COL?

You had Rishi Sunak on Linkedin a few days ago (which is hilarious because Linkedin is a Microsoft owned product) go on a tangent about the CMA and wanting to reduce regulatory hurdles stunting economic growth

100% guarantee there's political pressure on the CMA and it shouldn't be a surprise considering, Rishi and his party are pro business and for de-regulation.

[Altariaz]

Every country has its antitrust organ.

If antitrust or Nation X does not approve the merge, it’s not that companies cannot merge (unless it’s the organ of the nation where the companies are from), but they cannot sell their products in the Nation X.

If UK says no, they can still merge but if they do they cannot sell their stuff in the UK. And UK is just a too big market to ignore.

Of course if Nation X was Congo, no one would care apart from Congo players.

In it present form, the takeover needed approval from both EU and UK regulators to go ahead, meaning that the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision has effectively killed it unless it is overturned on appeal. The US Federal Trade Commission is also suing Microsoft to block the deal.
It must be noted that, according to the CMA: "The UK has the biggest tech sector in Europe and the third largest globally valued at $1tn, demonstrating the UK is open for business and an attractive place to invest."
Further, Activision’s share price fell sharply after the CMA decision was announced, while Monday’s decision (15th May 2023) saw little significant movement for either company. The Call of Duty publisher has said it is working “aggressively with Microsoft to reverse this on appeal”.
One way forward would be for the relevant stakeholders to address the CMA's concerns, and then revise and resubmit the proposal.

[Curbstomp171]

In it present form, the takeover needed approval from both EU and UK regulators to go ahead, meaning that the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision has effectively killed it unless it is overturned on appeal. The US Federal Trade Commission is also suing Microsoft to block the deal.
It must be noted that, according to the CMA: "The UK has the biggest tech sector in Europe and the third largest globally valued at $1tn, demonstrating the UK is open for business and an attractive place to invest."
Further, Activision’s share price fell sharply after the CMA decision was announced, while Monday’s decision (15th May 2023) saw little significant movement for either company. The Call of Duty publisher has said it is working “aggressively with Microsoft to reverse this on appeal”.
One way forward would be for the relevant stakeholders to address the CMA's concerns, and then revise and resubmit the proposal.

Tech investments in the UK also dropped 22%

https://www.uktech.news/news/investm...eport-20221207

Also ARM (the same ARM Nvidia tried to buy) is located in Britain and decided to list itself on the NYSE and not on the LSE, imagine if a US tech company opted to list itself on another country stock exchange over the NYSE

Apple also threatened to leave the UK entirely last year

There's no way to spin the fact that the UK economically is in the toilet and their tech sector is collapsing and they're on their way to becoming a third world country.

[Pann]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rishi...member_android

"The work of the Competition and Markets Authority - Oral evidence"

Its literally in the title...what "oral evidence" does the CMA have to provide regarding COL?

You had Rishi Sunak on Linkedin a few days ago (which is hilarious because Linkedin is a Microsoft owned product) go on a tangent about the CMA and wanting to reduce regulatory hurdles stunting economic growth

100% guarantee there's political pressure on the CMA and it shouldn't be a surprise considering, Rishi and his party are pro business and for de-regulation.

I'm curious what you think Sunak's letter has to do with MS and ATVI at best it seems to be a very tenuous connection. It is do with Brexit and the abandoning of the Retained EU Law Bill.

What is literally in the title? There is absolutely no mention of MS or ATVI.

You could try reading the article I linked.

Do you think that Sunak or his government, especially after the kicking they've been receiving in the polls and at the locals, is going to expend political capital pressurising the CMA to approve a merger between some gaming companies rather than asking the CMA what they are doing to address the current cost of living?

[Curbstomp171]

I'm curious what you think Sunak's letter has to do with MS and ATVI at best it seems to be a very tenuous connection. It is do with Brexit and the abandoning of the Retained EU Law Bill.

What is literally in the title? There is absolutely no mention of MS or ATVI.

You could try reading the article I linked.

Do you think that Sunak or his government, especially after the kicking they've been receiving in the polls and at the locals, is going to expend political capital pressurising the CMA to approve a merger between some gaming companies rather than asking the CMA what they are doing to address the current cost of living?

I never said he mentioned MS/ABK or that this was specifically for this deal, this hearing isn't for any one specific issue. The same thing happened last month when Lina Khan was in front of congress, they grilled her on multiple issues including the MS/ABK deal, but also the fact that she's incomptent and she was begging for more funding despite the fact that the FTC is collapsing under her leadership

The same thing is likely to happen with the CMA tomorrow, not focused on any one specific issue but will guarantee the MS/ABK deal will be brought up

Also your last point, you do realize that they can multitask and talk about multiple topics right? You call a merger between some gaming companies, at the same time its one of the largest tech acquisitions and by far the biggest merger the CMA has ever had to report on, but sure there won't even be a peep about it tomorrow

[Pann]

I never said he mentioned MS/ABK or that this was specifically for this deal, this hearing isn't for any one specific issue. The same thing happened last month when Lina Khan was in front of congress, they grilled her on multiple issues including the MS/ABK deal, but also the fact that she's incomptent and she was begging for more funding despite the fact that the FTC is collapsing under her leadership

The same thing is likely to happen with the CMA tomorrow, not focused on any one specific issue but will guarantee the MS/ABK deal will be brought up

Also your last point, you do realize that they can multitask and talk about multiple topics right? You call a merger between some gaming companies, at the same time its one of the largest tech acquisitions,

You don't seem to have understood what I wrote. The Tories are several points behind in the polls and have just lost over 1,000 councillors if they were to exert pressure on an independent department do you think voters would prefer that they did so to enable two American gaming companies to complete their merger or would voters think that, maybe, their time would be better spent ensuring the cost their food and petrol is not due to uncompetitive practices?

[Curbstomp171]

You don't seem to have understood what I wrote. The Tories are several points behind in the polls and have just lost over 1,000 councillors if they were to exert pressure on an independent department do you think voters would prefer that they did so to enable two American gaming companies to complete their merger or would voters think that, maybe, their time would be better spent ensuring the cost their food and petrol is not due to uncompetitive practices?

You keep saying "game companies" but keep ignoring

-Its the largest tech merger
-It directly impacts the UK tech sector
-It sets a precedence on future tech investments in the UK which are dropping fast because of regulators

"bu buh its just teh vidya games"

Not a good argument from you I'm afraid

[beanman12345]

https://twitter.com/CMAgovUK/status/1658131200181952516

Passive aggressive? Seems like a simple response/clarification of their position to me. One they may feel compelled to provide given how much criticism and how many Very Informed Criticisms they've received from gamers who want to play Cowaduty on Game Pass.

Lmao, they first claim their views and EU's are unanimous, but respect EU's different views in the same tweet. Yeah they sound like a hot mess to me.

Edit - Honestly they shouldn't have said anything, now they're correctly getting ratio'd by "u mad" meme's.

[Pann]

You keep saying "game companies" but keep ignoring

-Its the largest tech merger
-It directly impacts the UK tech sector
-It sets a precedence on future tech investments in the UK which are dropping fast because of regulators

"bu buh its just teh vidya games"

Not a good argument from you I'm afraid

And? Why not try addressing the point I made? There is absolutely no political upside for the Government to force the CMA to approve this deal and lots of downsides.

But seeing as you are some sort of, self appointed, expert. Perhaps you could explain the direct economic benefit of this merger to the UK and how it affects future investment in the UK's tech sector?

[Tech614]

100% the CMA is going to back down and this deal IS going to happen. anyone saying otherwise is oblivious to how the world works.

There is no "backing down". The deal is already blocked.

If the CAT appeal is successful the CMA then re-reviews the deal at that time with the new current market conditions(that will be like 10+ months from now if it even happens, strap in). You can really spot the people that have no clue what they're talking about with bullshit like "backing down". Like homie really thinks the CMA are gonna come out and be like "jk bro" or that they even can after literally blocking the deal. There is no take backs here.

[The Oblivion]

There is no "backing down". The deal is already blocked.

If the CAT appeal is successful the CMA then re-reviews the deal at that time with the new current market conditions(that will be like 10+ months from now if it even happens, strap in). You can really spot the people that have no clue what they're talking about with bullshit like "backing down". Like homie really thinks the CMA are gonna come out and be like "jk bro" or that they even can after literally blocking the deal. There is no take backs here.

it is you who has no clue. be sure to come back and apologize to me in a few months.

[Jtbrig7390]

it is you who has no clue. be sure to come back and apologize to me in a few months.

...You do realize the deadline is next month right? Afterword's MS has to make a new deal with MS and the entire song and dance will repeat. I guess you didn't since you are just talking out of your ass like usual. The deal is dead, the CMA isn't backing down and even their recent tweet shows that. They get final say and MS isn't going to "Pull out" of the UK over ABK.

I really don't get why people are being pro-corpo...

[The Oblivion]

...You do realize the deadline is next month right? Afterword's MS has to make a new deal with MS and the entire song and dance will repeat. I guess you didn't since you are just talking out of your ass like usual. The deal is dead, the CMA isn't backing down and even their recent tweet shows that. They get final say and MS isn't going to "Pull out" of the UK over ABK.

I really don't get why people are being pro-corpo...

we will see

[vilememory]

Now we wait for Sony to merge with Epic Game Store so Sony can have console exclusive games that will only be ported to EG while EG keeps making games exclusive to their game launcher.