The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is still weighing the industry costs and benefits of approving the $68.7 billionActivision Blizzardacquisition deal proposed byMicrosoft, and now it is opening the floor for comment by the general public. As reported byGamesIndustry.biz, the government authority on October 20 posted a lengthy explanation of its role in the proposed acquisition deal on aUK government Website,
Microsoft had scored a big win early in the month, as a regulatory board in Brazilapproved the acquisition with no restrictions, but the company’s initial pitch to the CMA in the United Kingdom was met with some initial concerns. The move by the CMA this week opens the floor to anyone who would like to weigh in on the topic, although the authority has noted it will not likely have the time or resources to issue a response to every individual concern it receives.
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As per the government Website, the agency is only looking at three “theories of harm” that its members are concerned may be brought about by approving the acquisition. Those theories center on potential negative market effects, which could include damage to competing consoles, game subscription services, and cloud gaming. “The CMA can only look at the effects of the merger that are related to a loss of competition,” the Website clarifies. The posting on the Website comes just a day after Microsoft issued to the CMA a response that the most profitable intellectual property it seeks to acquire, theCall of Dutyfranchise, wouldn’t be able to go on its Xbox GamePass service"for a number of years"due to pre-existing agreements with top competitorSony PlayStation.
Additionally, the Website provides a handy info graphic explaining where the CMA currently sits in its process.
The purpose of the current stage of the investigation is for the authority to build on it’s first phase and “gather more evidence from the merging businesses and others to investigate potential issues with competition that could arise as a result of the merger.” Once the second phase has been completed, the CMA will move on to analyzing its evidence, producing its provisional findings, and issuing a final report.
Those who wish to offer commentary to the CMA may contact it at microsoft.activision@cma.gov.uk, although the authority requests that anyone who issues such an e-mail does so only after thoroughly reading through its informational Website and the documents on its relatedinvestigation page.
