Microsoft to appeal CMA decision on Activision Blizzard purchase

After the UK Competition and Markets Authority blocked the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, the publisher revealed that he would appeal the decision. According to statements to Bloomberg, Microsoft vice president and president Brad Smith said the company remains “fully committed” to the acquisition.

“We remain fully committed to this acquisition and will appeal. The CMA decision rejects a pragmatic path to address competition concerns and discourages technological innovation and investment in the UK.

An Activision spokesperson added:

“The CMA report contradicts the UK’s ambitions to become an attractive country to build tech businesses. We will work aggressively with Microsoft to reverse this on appeal.”

According to the CMA report, the final decision came down to Microsoft’s failure to provide a solution to cloud gaming concerns. Given that it virtually has a dominant market share for cloud gaming services, in addition to the infrastructure of Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming, the authority considered that Microsoft with more advantages “would risk undermining innovation crucial to the game.” development of these opportunities.

Although Microsoft provided a proposal to address some of the concerns, the CMA felt that it did not cover “different cloud gaming service business models, including multi-game subscription services,” and was not “sufficiently open to vendors who wish to offer versions of games on non-Windows PC operating systems.” Of course, standardizing the “terms and conditions on which games are available, rather than being determined by the dynamism and creativity of the competition in the market” didn’t help.

But everything is not over with respect to the approval, since Microsoft and Activision also have to deal with the lawsuit of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, especially since the latter has stated that it does not agree.