by After news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard came out in January 2022, the game industry was shocked. If this acquisition comes true, it will change the global game market structure, especially Sony may face Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty” (Call of Duty) ) and other popular games will be launched exclusively on the Microsoft Xbox gaming platform.
On December 8, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Microsoft over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC complaint stated that the merger will make Sony, Nintendo and other peers uncompetitive, and may cause significant harm to consumers in multiple game markets.
Not only the government stepped in to prevent it, but even consumers expressed protest. A total of 10 gamers from California, New Mexico, and New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in the California federal court on December 20, saying that if Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard, it will have a power far beyond the market in the video game industry, crowding out competitors, restricting output, reduce consumer choice, raise prices and stifle competition.
But Microsoft will not give up on acquiring Activision Blizzard easily. Microsoft said it aims to close the deal by June 30, 2023.
Faced with obstacles from many parties, Microsoft is still actively promoting the acquisition
When Microsoft wanted to acquire accounting software maker Intuit Inc. in 1995, it also encountered FTC antitrust challenges. At that time, Microsoft abandoned the transaction because it did not want to fight a protracted lawsuit. But this time Microsoft is firm on the takeover.
After the FTC confirmed the lawsuit, Microsoft President Brad Smith said: “We continue to believe that this transaction is conducive to market competition and creates more opportunities for gamers and game developers.” He said that Microsoft is committed to resolving Concerned about competition, it also tried to propose a concession plan to the FTC, “We are full of confidence in the merger and acquisition case, and hope to have the opportunity to express our opinions in court.”
Microsoft announced that if it successfully acquires Activision Blizzard, it will continue to put Call of Duty on rival Sony’s PlayStation game console for at least ten years, but the agreement needs to be implemented, and the two companies need to formulate financial terms for the agreement. Jennifer Rie, an antitrust analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said the agreement would not appease regulators.
European Union and British regulators have also raised concerns about the acquisition, including whether Activision Blizzard’s hit Call of Duty will continue to offer gamers on the Sony PlayStation, and whether the acquisition will put Microsoft’s rising cloud-based gaming industry on the line. The service market dominates. “Reuters” quoted people familiar with the matter at the end of November as saying that Microsoft may make concessions to the European Commission and EU antitrust regulators on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard to avoid litigation.
Activision Blizzard has achieved outstanding results in the mobile game market, and Microsoft hopes to make up for its weaknesses through mergers and acquisitions
Microsoft also emphasized that the acquisition will help stimulate innovation in the Microsoft game industry. “Microsoft’s gaming industry faces big challenges,” Smith said.
In addition to Microsoft’s Xbox game system still losing to Sony PlayStation and Nintendo, Microsoft also has no room for mobile games. He singled out Apple and Google, saying: “Although mobile games are a fast-growing and high-income field, these two app stores earn a large share of these revenues by charging game developers. part”.”
And Activision Blizzard does have a place in mobile games. It only acquired King, the developer of “Candy Crush Saga” in 2016. Activision Blizzard said on the 11th that “Candy Crush Saga” has more than 200 million monthly active users.
However, as regulators strengthen their supervision over “anti-monopoly”, Microsoft still has a long way to go to successfully acquire Activision Blizzard. Whether this $69 billion merger will come to fruition, everyone is waiting Look.
(This article is sponsored by Manager’s Monthly Authorized to reprint; source of the first image:Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0via Wikimedia Commons）
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