UK authority stops Microsoft Activision deal: Bobby Kotick reacts touched
It would be the gaming industry’s biggest deal, but regulators around the world are eagerly probing that the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard could create too powerful a concentration of the world’s most popular gaming content. The competition watchdogs in the UK had now caused a bang and stopped the deal because of the cloud business of all things. While Microsoft announces legal resistance, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick chooses direct public confrontation with the authority.
Immediately after the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) became known, Kotick had in an interview with the television channel CNBC (via VGC) visibly touched by an “irrational” decision by the authorities. The Activision boss wanted to emphasize this point a little more clearly. “It was a flawed decision in every way,” he said. “And it showed us that these regulators don’t really understand our business.”
Hurry up now
For Kotick, however, the accusation of incompetence is not just an effective phrase in the fight with the authorities, but a targeted negotiation method. The lawyers who are now starting a judicial review for Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have signaled that things could now be accelerated. However, Kotick put it a little sharper: “The conclusions (of the agency) were so flawed that we should be able to get an accelerated result now.”
- Microsoft and Activision Blizzard: Deal stopped by UK competition authorities
- Bobby Kotick, CEO Activision Blizzard, reacts touched
- Authorities are incompetent, decision “irrational” and “incorrect”
- Microsoft and Activision Blizzard initiate court review
- Kotick demands “accelerated result”
See also:
Blizzard, CEO, Activision, Activision Blizzard, Publisher, Game Publisher, Bobby Kotick
