Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO is optimistic that the regulators will approve the company’s proposal to acquire Activision Blizzard.
In late January, we got confirmation from Microsoft that they will acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash transaction valued at $67.7 billion.
But the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the UK raised some concerns about the deal. According to CMA, the deal could potentially lessen competition in the market for consoles, subscriptions, and could gaming. Raised concerns from CMA put the Microsoft-Activation merger under scrutiny.
CEO Satya Nadella, on the other hand, is quite confident about the scrutiny. “Of course, any acquisition of this size will go through scrutiny, but we feel very, very confident that we’ll come out” said Nadella.
Gamers are also criticizing the deal fearing the potential exclusivity of Call of Duty and other Activision games on Microsoft platform. Many argued that the merger would see Microsoft releasing future Activision titles on Xbox and PC only.
Recently, CMA claimed the potential exclusivity of Call Of Duty on Xbox could harm PlayStation. Sony also argued that Call of Duty Xbox exclusivity can “influence someone’s console of choice.”
Microsoft CEO responded by saying, “So if this is about competition, let us have competition” Nadella continues – noting that Microsoft is the No. 4 or No. 5 competitor within the games industry, while Sony is No. 1. Sony has also made several big acquisitions recently.
It is likely to be a long time before the merger actually takes place. The deal might potentially fall through if CMA decides to intervene.