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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company is “very, very confident” that the merger with Activision Blizzard will proceed.
The £50 billion deal was first announced in January, but earlier this month the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns that the merger could “cause harm to competitors” and “harm to competition”.
For this reason, the CMA is considering “a full Phase 2 investigation,” which involves inviting a panel of independent experts to explore potential concerns and risks in detail. than. It follows the investigation launched by the CMA in July.
However, speaking to Bloomberg, Nadella said: “Of course, any acquisition of this size will be subject to close scrutiny, but we are very, very confident that we will get out. ”
“So if it’s competition, let us have competition,” Nadella said. However, business lawyer and creator of the legal podcast in the Virtual Legality industry, Richard Hoeg called Nadella’s statements “I think the deal can and will be done, but it does. extremely dishonest about what we’re even talking about,” he said on Twitter. “Maybe you could scale every acquisition in game history by the size of the deal (Activision Blizzard).”
Nadella went on to say that Microsoft is still only the fourth or fifth largest competitor in the gaming market while Sony, which he considers the largest, has also made a series of major acquisitions, including both developers of Returnal Housemarque, the eSports platform Repeat. Firesprite as well as Destiny studio Bungie.
Earlier this month, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan called Microsoft’s Call Of Duty offer “unsatisfactory on many levels” after Microsoft promised to keep the PlayStation franchise for three years beyond the current deal. between Activision and Sony.
Ryan said: “I don’t intend to comment on what I understand to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record because [Xbox boss] Phil Spencer has brought this up before the public forum. declare.