Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13

[Nesh]

She is the representative of Washington which is the headquarters of Microsoft. She is doing her job, her constituents are Microsoft employees.

Her job basically is corporate lobbying

 

[fehu]

She is the representative of Washington which is the headquarters of Microsoft. She is doing her job, her constituents are Microsoft employees.

Microsoft is so big that has tons of employees in any usa state, all the world, and even in fictional countries like... like... Kyrat or... or... Australia

 

[BRiT]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639243557616734209

Only hassle left now is the FTC as the EU is thought to also likely rule the MS acquisition of ABK is not an issue.

 

[BRiT]

Additional Links to CMA documents inside this tweet:

CMA narrows scope of concerns in Microsoft –
Activision review Addendum provisional findings report assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/641d6b7e…
Notice of addendum to provisional findings assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/641d6bad…
CMA narrows scope of concerns in Microsoft - Activision review gov.uk/government/new… https://t.co/lrbboMSzce

CMA has provisionally concluded that MS/ABK deal “will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in console gaming services" cos MS is unlikely to withhold CoD from PS
They still have concerns about cloud gaming market, and the investigation remains until end of April

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639238541753434113

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639243771916296192

 

[BRiT]

I guess the mathematical error the CMA made using 5 years versus 1 was corrected...

#Microsoft says the #CMA's determination of whether foreclosure is profitable is based on the FIVE-year profits from an additional #Xbox user while considering only ONE year of lost CoD revenues.

Quite an asymmetry.

Once normalized, the result is: foreclosure is UNprofitable.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1636352798622138372

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639239854734057472

 

[BRiT]

Lulu tweets related ...

The CMA’s updated provisional findings show an improved understanding of the console gaming market and demonstrate a commitment to supporting players and competition.

Sony’s campaign to protect its dominance by blocking our merger can’t overcome the facts and Microsoft has already presented effective and enforceable remedies to address each of the CMA’s remaining concerns.
We know this deal will benefit competition, innovation, and consumers in the UK.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639249194090102784

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639249409589510145

 

[cheapchips]

I'm a bit disappointed that corporate affairs drone Meservey wasn't a bit spicier. "CMA update their provision finding by using a calculator, rather than having a 2 yr old try and calculate harm by using alphablocks"

 

[iroboto]

Her job basically is corporate lobbying

Microsoft is so big that has tons of employees in any usa state, all the world, and even in fictional countries like... like... Kyrat or... or... Australia

Whether the company or an individual donates, at a certain point of value, the company you work for will be revealed because they will show any donators full name publicly after a certain amount - then you just route that back to who they are employed by. It would make sense that, the 60K people that MS employs in Washington have money to donate to the political candidates of their choice given their salary ranges. Typically with elections, you cannot accept donations from entities outside of the state. So yes, it would make sense the biggest contributors in Washington state will likely come from the top 10 employers from within that state, and given the wealth of MS, this is to be expected.

I get it's not a good look, but it's basically misinformation spreading. She is doing her job. It's not like the Representative of Alaska is droning on about this.

 

[chris1515]

The deal will go this is sure. After profitability is not important. they won enough money in other division to make this possible. If I am Microsoft I buy Take Two next. I let the COD and GTA multiplatform this gen and I make them exclusive next gen and it will be profitable because Playstation consoles sales will goes down and they will go third party.

 

[troyan]

Maybe CMA doesnt know who Microsoft is:

We remain of the view that these factors contribute to Microsoft’s incentive to engage in a foreclosure strategy. In light of the magnitude of the potential losses that Microsoft would incur from a total foreclosure strategy (as suggested by the revised LTV model), however, we consider that these longer-term strategic incentives, together with all other available evidence, are not sufficient to show that Microsoft would have an incentive to make CoD exclusive to Xbox post-Merger.

Thats the company who is given away software and other solutions until it has a dominant market position...

/edit:
There is a current anti trust lawsuit from a german cloud provider against Microsoft:

Nextcloud complained that Microsoft "pushes" its file-hosting service OneDrive in Windows, including by pre-installing the software, giving users free storage and nudging them with pop-up alerts to start using the service.
[...]
A coalition of 30 smaller EU tech companies and associations has come out in support of Nextcloud in a campaign that extends to other services Microsoft allegedly pushes such as Teams.
"The problem is that Microsoft is bundling their services with Windows where they have a dominant position," Nextcloud founder Frank Karlitschek told POLITICO.

Microsoft targeted in antitrust complaint to EU over OneDrive

German software company says Microsoft ‘pushes’ its file-hosting service OneDrive in Windows.

www.politico.eu

Microsoft is using software to get rid of the competition.

 

[iroboto]

Maybe CMA doesnt know who Microsoft is:


Thats the company who is given away software and other solutions until it has a dominant market position...

There is a literal category of the highest grossing games in the games industry that are all free to play. I don't think MS is doing anything novel here.

 

[MCharta]

Im' not surprised that the idea one license can foreclose Sony didn't survived more scrutiny and data

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Im' not surprised that the idea one license can foreclose Sony didn't survived more scrutiny and data

Sony have never claimed that. This circulated only in fanboy's minds and circles.

Sony's actual claim, was not much better, some weird expected entitlement to what has been lucrative profits from one franchise.

 

[iceberg187]

I think this roller coaster is going to be coming to an end soon. Microsoft won. Lawyers were worth whatever they paid for their services.

 

[Lurkmass]

I assume this is a well timed pause of relief for Microsoft but with Amazon's recent expansion of Luna in other territories, one has to wonder what their stance is when there are no signs yet of any agreements with them ...

They could yet become another possible opponent that Microsoft would have to face for the acquisition to gain approval. Luna already uses Windows VMs just like GFN but having external content publishers under Microsoft's control would raise their bargaining power to the point where Amazon could be the spoiler if there's no solid picture established with them ...

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Yummy: Diablo IV and Star Craft on GP.

 

[BRiT]

We appreciate the CMA’s additional detailed and objective analysis. Its provisional update underscores a growing consensus by those with access to the most current data that this deal will create more competition in the console market, not less.

UK’s CMA: Microsoft Right, Sony Wrong On ‘Call Of Duty’ Competition Question

Microsoft now appears to well on its way to the overall approval of its Activision Blizzard acquisition, as it’s just scored probably its largest victory yet.

www.forbes.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639298498985336832

 

[troyan]

Now, Sony is likely going to have to take whatever deal Microsoft offers here, which will likely not be a very good one, given how badly the relationship between the brands has been damaged during this entire process with Sony pulling out all the stops to try and kill this deal. But that’s a problem for another day.

Why should Sony make any deal? The CMA said it doesnt make sense to withdraw CoD from the Playstation system. So in the end the winner is Sony...

 

[BRiT]

Why should Sony make any deal? The CMA said it doesnt make sense to withdraw CoD from the Playstation system. So in the end the winner is Sony...

As Activision commented on before, MS was offering Sony a better deal than what Activision would have offered. Sony would confirm they are acting a fool for passing up a better deal.

 

[troyan]

Activision used Sony and Microsoft to make more money - sold them exclusive deals. Now the CMA has come to the conclusion that Microsoft needs Sony more than ever:

This model uses the ‘lifetime value’ (LTV) of gamers who switch from PlayStation to Xbox following a total foreclosure strategy as an approximation of Microsoft’s gains from that strategy and the foregone revenue from all PlayStation CoD gamers as an approximation of the losses. Our revised model now suggests that making CoD exclusive to Xbox would result in a significant financial loss for Microsoft post-Merger. Given the magnitude of these potential losses under all scenarios that we considered to be plausible, we now place significantly more weight on the LTV model than we did at the stage of our Provisional Findings.