The mudslinging continues as Activision’s Bobby Kotick implies the CMA and FTC are working together to stop Microsoft’s buy out.
After portraying itself as the underdog for so long, Microsoft has quickly turned into a vicious rottweiler following the Competition and Market’s Authority’s (CMA) decision to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith has gone so far as to call it the ‘darkest day in our four decades in Britain,’ with Microsoft already pledging to appeal the decision.
Activision boss Bobby Kotick has not kept his displeasure a secret either. What is surprising, though, is that he seems to have suggested that the CMA’s decision was influenced by US regulator the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
As a reminder, while most regulators approved the deal with little issue, the FTC has always been critical, at times more so than even the CMA, as it has filed a lawsuit in its efforts to block it.
As such, Kotick seems to think that the FTC had something to do with the UK decision, accusing the heads of the FTC and CMA of meeting up ahead of the latter’s decision.
‘I was surprised to learn that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA had a meeting a week and a half ago in Washington,’ he says in a recent CNBC interview.
‘You know, legally, you’re not supposed to be discussing active litigation. I don’t know that they did. But, you know, I think that that’s what you’re seeing now is that the CMA is being used as a tool by the FTC to be able to create these kinds of outcomes, and this isn’t the way that they’re supposed to be operating.’
Considering Microsoft and Activision want to curry both the CMA and FTC’s favour, accusing them of breaking their own rules doesn’t seem like the smartest idea.
Activision’s executive vice president Lulu Cheng Mersey has also made some damning comments about the CMA, accusing the organisation of hurting the UK’s economic prospects.
‘This report is also a disservice to UK citizens, who face increasingly dire economic prospects, and we will need to reassess our growth strategy in the UK,’ she tweeted.
‘Global innovators large and small will take note that – despite all its rhetoric – the UK is closed for business.’
There’s every chance the deal could still go through, but Microsoft’s inital plans are already scuppered since the appeal process is going to take many months, meaning its aim to finalise the deal this year is unlikely to happen.
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