Microsoft Not Afraid of Investigations and Confident in Activision Deal
Although UK officials have launched a detailed investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Redmond giant doesn't seem to care at all.
Source: Unsplash, Renato Ramos Puma.
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the largest deal in the history of the gaming industry. It's hardly surprising, then, that such a complicated operation is being examined in detail by regulatory authorities around the world - including in the UK. According to local experts the deal could hurt competitiveness in the game market.
The whole situation was commented on by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. In an interview with Bloomberg, Nadella confirmed that he is confident that the deal will go through.
"Of course, any acquisition of this size will go through scrutiny, but we feel very, very confident that we’ll come out," Nadella said in the interview with reporters.
"If it is a competition, let us compete," Nadella added, thus making it clear that Sony must not block Microsoft's ability to compete. The CEO said that the Japanese company is the biggest force in the game industry, while Microsoft is actually in fourth or fifth place (depending on how you count, via MSPoweruser). You can watch Nadella's statement below.
The American company also confirmed that after finalizing the purchase of Activision, Blizzard will not rest on its laurels and will continue to target more acquisitions in the market.
Concerns about the anti-competitive nature of the merger center around brands such as Call of Duty, which could potentially become exclusive to Microsoft platforms. Xbox's Phil Spencer has already confirmed that for now he would like to keep CoD as a multi-platform franchise, while also adding the titles included in it to the Xbox Game Pass service..
We will probably have to wait a little longer for the finale of the whole affair. We are extremely curious to see who will succeed in this situation.
