Since microsoft announced the acquisition of ActivisionBlizzard For just under $69 billion, the deal has been on everyone’s lips. Not only because of the caliber of the companies involved and the amount of money involved, but also because of the fate of Call of Duty and the rest of the studio’s intellectual property. But regulatory scrutiny has also been the subject of recurring analysis and debate, and rightly so; and despite mounting pressure in the United States and Europe, those of Redmond trust that everything will be resolved favorably.
Satya NadellaCEO of Microsoft, was optimistic about it in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “Of course, any acquisition of this size is going to go through a lot of scrutiny, but we feel very, very confident that we’ll pull through,” he said.
The executive also took the opportunity to comment on those who say that the purchase of Activision Blizzard threatens competition. According to Nadella, Microsoft today is the “fourth or fifth largest company” in the video game industry in terms of revenue, and that it will not jump to first place after this acquisition.
He also took the opportunity to launch a dart against Sony, which according to the executive is number 1 in the market. The CEO of the Xbox parent company said that the Japanese, who have publicly criticized this transaction and its possible effects on PlayStation, have made several purchases so far this year. “If this is for competition, let us compete,” he asserted.
Microsoft confident in the approval of the purchase of Activision Blizzard
Last February, a few weeks after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard was announced, Satya Nadella had already used similar arguments to justify why its approval would not harm the competition. At that time, he had said that the market was very fragmented and that, even with the purchase closed, would still generate less revenue than Tencent and Sony.
“Even after this acquisition, we will be number three with a relatively low market share. […]. Yes, we will be a great player, but in a highly fragmented space “, he had pointed out.
The new statements by the CEO of Microsoft have not come to light by chance. Last week, the UK Competition and Markets Authority announced a further investigation into the deal. His fear is that the purchase of Activision Blizzard will lead to anti-competitive practices. And what happens on British soil may influence regulatory scrutiny in other crucial markets, such as the European Union and the United States.
The biggest concern in the industry is the possibility that franchises such as Call of Duty become Xbox exclusive. Microsoft maintains that this is not its intention, something that Phil Spencer has referred to on several occasions. However, from Sony they are not too sure. Days ago, Jim Ryan, CEO of PlayStation, assured that the Redmond proposal to keep the popular shooter on its platform was “inappropriate on many levels.”