FTC Seeks to Block Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision, Bobby Kotick's Response

[Baraden]

Or...they just fail and they stop making games altogether. Pick your poison.

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What? I dont think the word literally means what you literally think it means.
How do they not have any legal grounds?

Because nothing about this deal is illegal

[Ihavewaffles]

Leaked (by my dad working in Blizzard) Bobby's copypaste template letter for any inside company issue:

'Dear Team,

Our lead want to give short update about [put here any recent and very concerning inside company problem].

We will do our best to [put here any PR response that everything will be okay]].

Thank you for all of your hardwork and [put here some PR words about top tier rank in game industry, inclusion, e-sports and charity].

Thank you,
Your Bobby'

Lol, basically this..

[leviathonlx]

This is more just a formality and won't actually go anywhere. Even with the merge Sony and Nintendo are still a larger share than Microsoft and the gaming market is actually pretty diverse so there's no real monopolies.

[baskev]

i get against monopoly positions of companies...but why can elon musk have several tech markets in his pocket then?

But i hope microsoft still buys blizzard. Just fire bobby.

When i look at diablo 4 , all the gameplay video's i see a great game. That looks and feels good ( as far as i can see). But then comes the monitization....and i almost puke how bad it is.

Or look at dragonflight....it shows blizzard still has the skills. But somewhere up the chain bad choices are being made.

[Adam552]

Love seeing the experts in this forum commentating on this

[Alayea]

Yes they absolutely would be able to stop the deal. Wtf makes you think they can't?

I'm not talking about their legal authority, I'm referring to the (dubious) lawsuit they filed.

[keldarepewpew]

The deal will pass the FTC is pretty toothless most of the time, been following M&A for years, they always voice concerns like this with big mergers. But this industry is not that intresting to washington. MS will lobby this through for sure.

[TheRevenantHero]

I'm not talking about their legal authority, I'm referring to the (dubious) lawsuit they filed.

It's not a dubious lawsuit either. It's literally explained in the post why the FTC is filing to block the deal.

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i get against monopoly positions of companies...but why can elon musk have several tech markets in his pocket then?

But i hope microsoft still buys blizzard. Just fire bobby.

When i look at diablo 4 , all the gameplay video's i see a great game. That looks and feels good ( as far as i can see). But then comes the monitization....and i almost puke how bad it is.

Or look at dragonflight....it shows blizzard still has the skills. But somewhere up the chain bad choices are being made.

Probably because the only successful company with Musk's name on it is Tesla.

But I have looked at Dragonflight. Blizzard absolutely does not have the skills anymore.

[rhorle]

It's not a dubious lawsuit either. It's literally explained in the post why the FTC is filing to block the deal.

The core issues is around Sony claiming Call of Duty going xbox/pc exclusive would mean they would be unable to compete. They have even claimed the true goal of Microsoft is for Sony to become like Nintendo. They may have some valid concerns but I don't think Sony is being altruistic with their objections.

[khazmodan]

I would not be one bit surprised to find out that Microsoft wants this challenge so they can make a better deal by buying only part of the company that has better long term Xbox game pass value. With a real recession influencing spending by players and many investors predicting that China will block the deal, the profit justification is disappearing along with Bobby's big payoff. The deal needs 16 countries to approve the deal and only 2 so far have approved it (Saudi Arabia and Brazil), there is also Europe that has been pretty unhappy with Microsoft and Blizzard for a lot of reasons. There is also the ending of the partnership with NetEase in China which means no more income from any of the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo franchise games. The hits keep coming and Microsoft must be wondering whether that 68 billion could be spent better elsewhere...

https://seekingalpha.com/article/456...ft-acquisition

https://www.wsj.com/articles/activis...ip-11668683454

[Alayea]

It's not a dubious lawsuit either. It's literally explained in the post why the FTC is filing to block the deal.

dubious adjective

2: giving rise to uncertainty: such as
* a: of doubtful promise or outcome

a dubious plan

[agentsi]

How is it a conspiracy? if the FTC wins, Kotick remains in power at ABK. If the merger goes through, Spencer is already on record saying Kotick would not remain with the company.

None of this affects your daily life. And if he gets paid or not, the merger is more than likely going to turn out to be a great success, or terrible flop. I hope it flops personally, so Blizzard will buy itself away from Microsoft, similar to how Bungie bought itself back from Activision. Sometimes you need to take a step back, before moving forwards.

But your bs about Kotick is just dumb. That's how ALL companies are, yes, some are changing for the better. But if you're appalled by his behavior, you shouldn't own a phone, apple or google, or any, or a PC. Because you support people and companies, who have done FAR worse things than Kotick, and we all know he's a pretty shitty persona already. So stop with the bullshit.

[rrayy]

How is it a conspiracy? if the FTC wins, Kotick remains in power at ABK. If the merger goes through, Spencer is already on record saying Kotick would not remain with the company.

IT's a conspirtacy theory because it implies that the government wants Bobby to remain in power. The only reason for that is the government gains by Bobby still being CEO which they absolutely don't. The government does not care who is CEO of A-B. His claim has no grounds in reality

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The deal will pass the FTC is pretty toothless most of the time, been following M&A for years, they always voice concerns like this with big mergers. But this industry is not that intresting to washington. MS will lobby this through for sure.

MS won't lobby because this goes through the federal courts now,not Congress.

[Stickiler]

I would not be one bit surprised to find out that Microsoft wants this challenge so they can make a better deal by buying only part of the company that has better long term Xbox game pass value. With a real recession influencing spending by players and many investors predicting that China will block the deal, the profit justification is disappearing along with Bobby's big payoff. The deal needs 16 countries to approve the deal and only 2 so far have approved it (Saudi Arabia and Brazil), there is also Europe that has been pretty unhappy with Microsoft and Blizzard for a lot of reasons. There is also the ending of the partnership with NetEase in China which means no more income from any of the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo franchise games. The hits keep coming and Microsoft must be wondering whether that 68 billion could be spent better elsewhere...

https://seekingalpha.com/article/456...ft-acquisition

https://www.wsj.com/articles/activis...ip-11668683454

China is like 10% of ABK's revenue, and only like 3% of Blizzard themselves. Losing China really isn't the big loss that people think it is.

[Daronokk]

Anyone rooting for Microsoft in this is out of their mind. No good can come from this.

[baskev]

Probably because the only successful company with Musk's name on it is Tesla.

But I have looked at Dragonflight. Blizzard absolutely does not have the skills anymore.

First 1: yup. but still.
second 1: disagree. Matter of opinion. I like it more then i have many expansions. I like the getting back to older stuff. But to each his/her own.

[tomten]

Where the hell are you getting that from?

Kotick is getting fired, and he's getting a nice golden parachute. How do those conflict at all?

Because you claim they want to fire him which only happens with the deal, he's also getting paid from the deal... So thenhen he's not getting the payout so its very much conflicting.
Weird you can't see this but I guess you're to busy making up random conspiracy theories

[TheRevenantHero]

dubious adjective

2: giving rise to uncertainty: such as
* a: of doubtful promise or outcome

a dubious plan

And again, it's not dubious. There's nothing uncertain about it. All you're doing is telling everyone you didn't read WHY the block is happening.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

This is just the FTC pulling a political stunt in the hopes of a shakedown. I'm not a fan of Activision (and Bobby Kotick especially), but the federal agency isn't going to be able stop the deal from being closed next year.

They can stop it, but do they have the backbone to do so. Considering suddenly remembering Monopolies bad would put a lot of pressure on them to start looking at the Monopolies they built since 2008, I imagine they'll just accept a guarantee that CoD will never be Xbox/PC exclusive and move on.

[Alayea]

And again, it's not dubious. There's nothing uncertain about it. All you're doing is telling everyone you didn't read WHY the block is happening.

Au contraire, I have. All you have done is repeatedly misinterpret my responses. So I will repeat myself one last time, in smaller words that you will hopefully understand this time:

This lawsuit that the FTC filed. They don't want merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. Because of XYZ (for sake of keeping this short). Reasoning for their lawsuit is not iron-clad (not to be confused with "wearing something made of iron"). Because it's not, it's doubtful that FTC will get what it wants.

There you go.