Holish.. what a twist! CMA blocked Microsoft!

Ok that is surprising. Literally everyone expected the deal to be approved by UK regulator. My mind is blown!

Reasons for blocking:

I have to give some comments so that the topic is not locked. Basically CMA blocked the deal due to concerns over the still relatively young cloud gaming and not about hardware wars with Sony Playstation or Nintendo.

Space for twitter reaction from industry.

Edit

More to come ~ probably.

Does this have any actual consequences? Both Activision and Microsoft are based in the USA, not UK.

What a twist! I expect an appeal but hot damn.

There you have it. What's next?😯

Elon Musk live reaction:

UK's a pimple on a cow's butt, no biggie. lol :P

The denial was over cloud gaming.😂

@R4gn4r0k: they do business in the UK and have offices there. They have to abide by their rules while operating out of those countries.

They can’t even blame Sony since they were mostly fighting about the console space.

RIP Xbox

Was NOT expecting this... Phil's definitely getting fired

🙁😬🤬 👈🤣👉 😥😢🥺

From what I understand they can merge in all other countries that have approved but in the UK they would have to act as separate entities. So games that are "Xbox" in a region that approves would be "Activision" in one that does not approve. (that is a basic summary it is obviously more complex than that)

Very weird decision, so MS is one of the few who made major investments in the cloud, other cloud competitors don't seem all that interested in gaming, at least not seriously. So the decision is to block the deal from the only actor that is committed to push the industry forward in that field over fears that it could damage competition? It's MS fault that no one else jumps in? What competition?

Who cares at this point it is what it is.

@kathaariancode: xbox is dominating the cloud market with its cloud initiative. With activision it will be very hard for other players to compete.

This is totally messed up. Microsoft has the smallest market share in console gaming, and cloud gaming is just a tiny fraction of the overall gaming industry. Yet the UK is saying this makes Microsoft a monopoly?

So why is Microsoft a monopoly but not Sony or Valve? These companies have insane market share in their fields (PS5 and Steam). Yet the UK government doesn’t give a crap about them.

I'm a bit bored of the subject, but this will have basically no effect, right? They'll still buy em. Would be more interesting if this could **** up the whole deal.

@sakaixx: Sony is dominating the home console market with PS5. Nintendo is dominating the handheld console market with Switch. Valve is dominating the PC market with Steam. So why aren’t these companies treated as monopolies but Microsoft apparently is?

Also, Microsoft signed 10-year contracts with several cloud companies to allow Activision Blizzard games to release on their platforms.

I see a lot of lems crying today😭

@daredevils2k: Cows will start crying when Sony no longer has any incentive to make good games due to lack of competition from Microsoft. The next God of War game will probably score 3/10.

@daredevils2k: I believe Netflix services runs on Amazon Cloud infrastructure. I don’t think Netflix is working on the actual technology behind cloud gaming, just the service itself. Microsoft on the other hand are working on both the Azure infrastructure as well as the Xbox cloud gaming service. Different situation to Netflix.

I’m begging that all sheep’s and cows put down your dislike of the Xbox and give your fellow lems a support hug, because after this news today, they will need it

so you're now blaming Sony , while MS gave up putting out quality games for a very long time because they felt buying up studios is better then putting out really good games for their own consoles?

This won't stop the deal,CMA using cloud gaming as a reason is a strange one seeing as Sony were the only real objectors.

The deal will still go through search Destin on YouTube where he talks to a lawyer

Xbox studios call of duty

@daredevils2k: Yes I’m blaming Sony, since they are the ones who tried hardest to block this. The only reason why Sony makes good games is because they wanted to compete against Microsoft. Now that Microsoft is no longer a threat (PS5 is outselling XBS like crazy), Sony no longer has a reason to make good games anymore. Why would they spend millions of dollars for nothing? Just make a Horizon game with stick figure graphics and call it a day. If Microsoft gains any market share, Sony can file a complaint to monopoly regulators to sue Microsoft.

So tell me, why would Sony make good games from here onwards?

I was hoping for ATVI stocks to tank but it isn't. WTF?😅

To make money?🤷🏽‍♀️

Just because they have the smallest market share didn't really give them carte blanche to buy up huge swathes of the market due to their own poor management. Xbox has been really shady about their approaches too. They hid how the division was performing for years, hiding key details to their investors about how Xbox was actually doing. I think this action probably didn't do MS any favors. Showing that MS couldn't prove they could grow their business without hobbling their competitors.

The thing to remember is this. This deal alone was more than the market cap of Nintendo, and nearly Sony's. This isn't a struggling smaller competitor who's unfairly being muscled out. This is the second biggest tech company in the world trying to buy themselves a place at the top of the food chain ASAP. Since this is about cloud and not protecting the market leader. The CMA likely saw this as MS trying to make itself the unchallenged king of cloud gaming while holding all the biggest cards in the deck. I don't completely understand the decision. But, I can guess how they got there

@Pedro: it’s down almost 10% in the pre market. The market opens in 45 mins so I expect more volatility then.

@Pedro: But they can still make money from crap games too. Now that Microsoft is no longer a threat to them, they can make crap games without worrying about it. If Microsoft gains market share due to poor PS5 game quality, Sony can ask regulators to sue Microsoft and accuse them of being a monopoly.

Still not seeing a valid reason for Sony to make good games.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/activision-stock-plunges-as-u-k-regulator-says-it-will-prohibit-microsoft-merger-18b293ae

Activision stocks dropped while MS's went up... likely because investors wanted them to use that money for something else

@BenjaminBanklin: Ignore the title, look at the ticker.

So you're telling me if MS doesnnt get this buyout thru, Sony will stop making quality games because of it, and that even though MS hasn't been putting out quality games for years now (hence why the XB HW is down 30+% right now) Sony no longers needs to put out quality games any more, Because MS is no longer a threat due crappy games it keeps putting out?

Shouldn't you be blaming MS for giving up years back?

@BenjaminBanklin: I understand what you mean, but even if it did allow Microsoft to be dominant in cloud gaming, what’s wrong with that? Sony is dominant in home console gaming, and Valve Steam is dominant in PC gaming. Why do Valve and Sony get jail-free cards when it comes to being dominant in their respective industries but Microsoft doesn’t? I want to know why Sony and Valve are constantly treated as innocent angels but Microsoft are evil demons?

Then will see when the market opens. If it does tank, there would be no complaints from me.😊

I think that is wrong. Sony and Nintendo is still largely in the traditional console space where you need software sales. They need to make the best games they could to ensure purchase retention from their base.

Xbox also shot themselves on the foot when they informed regulators Sony is not the competition in the cloud market. Xbox gamepass cloud initiative right now is probably the biggest cloud service and with Activision/Zenimax IP its very hard for other players to compete.

#gamers

No Xbox call of duty on gamepass in the UK when the deal gets finalised...oh well, PlayStation gamers paying full price as well as Xbox gamers means more money for Xbox.....the sales and profit fanboys will be pleased

@simple-facts: Can Microsoft still buy Activision even if UK blocks it?

Bahahahahaahahahahahahahahahha I called it. Where are my fellow lems at that were so confident this was going through?

You trying to buy that dip?

@sakaixx: actually I was half expecting they would block. So for me its not too surprising. Let's see what happens from here.

It's disappointing for sure, but not end of the world. If MS is really going to push it, they will just force things through without cma approval.

@Zero_epyon: Yep! I don't see why not.😊

Not a bad idea.