2023-04-27 08:04:13
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) “prevented the purchase of Activision over fears the deal would disrupt the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to less innovation and less choice for gamers.” UK players for years to come,” he said in a statement.
“We remain fully committed to this acquisition and will appeal,” Microsoft, which markets the Xbox video game console, reacted in a statement broadcast to AFP. Activision Blizzard would also line up with this position.
The purchase, for 69,000 million dollars, must also be approved by regulatory agencies in Europe and the United States.
London had launched an in-depth investigation into this transaction in mid-September.
The purchase by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard, publisher of successful games such as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘World of Warcraft’ and ‘Candy Crush’, would create the third largest video game company in business volume, following the Chinese Tencent and the Japanese Sony, PlayStation manufacturer.
The CMA considered at the end of March that the operation would not imply competition problems for video consoles, but admitted that fears persisted regarding online video games, which offer users the possibility of playing on their mobile phones.
“Microsoft engaged constructively with us to try to resolve these issues…but their proposals were not enough,” said Martin Coleman, chair of the independent think tank in charge of the CMA investigation.
Microsoft had proposed to license Activision games, including ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘World of Warcraft’, to certain cloud gaming providers for a period of 10 years.
But the CMA notes that this only applies “to a defined number of Activision games” and would be commercially advantageous, from the point of view of Microsoft, which already accounts for 60-70% of the global cloud gaming service. , “make Activision games exclusive to their own service.”
not the last word
“El cloud gaming [videojuegos en línea] you need a free market and competition to stimulate innovation and choice [de los consumidores]. The best way to achieve this is to allow the current dynamic of competition “in the sector to continue,” he added, quoted in the statement.
In the statement transmitted to AFP, Microsoft said it was “particularly disappointed” and considered that following much deliberation, this decision seemed to “reflect a misunderstanding of this market and of the actual operation of cloud technology.”
This decision “contradicts the UK’s ambitions to become an attractive country to create technology companies,” Activision said, adding that it wanted to “work vigorously with Microsoft to reverse it on appeal.”
“It wasn’t the news we wanted, but it’s far from the last word,” Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a message to employees. “We are confident in our case because the facts are on our side: this deal is good for competition,” he insisted.
The merger is also raising concerns on the other side of the Atlantic, where the US competition authority (FTC) filed lawsuits in December to block the deal. The European Union also opened an investigation to determine whether the acquisition would make Activision’s games exclusive to Xbox.
The European Commission must pronounce itself before May 22.
The UK market is smaller than either the US or the European Union, but if the London lockdown is upheld on appeal, it might force Microsoft to back out of the deal.
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