Microsoft boss slams UK labeling CMA\u2019s Activision decision as \u201cbad for Britain\u201d MicrosoftMicrosoft President Brad Smith has slammed the UK, believing that its decision to reject the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is \u201cbad for Britain.\u201d In January 2022, it was announced that Microsoft was acquiring Activision Blizzard in a record-breaking deal worth $70 billion. Skepticism over what the move meant for competition in the games industry led authorities like the UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority to investigate. After a lengthy investigation, the CMA decided to block the acquisition over fears that it would lead to Microsoft monopolizing cloud gaming. This decision has not gone down well with the company\u2019s president. Brad Smith believes CMA decision will hurt UK market Microsoft President Brad Smith has described the CMA\u2019s decision to block the Activision Blizzard acquisition as \u201cbad for Britain.\u201d In an interview with BBC Radio 4, the Microsoft boss expressed his disappointment in the UK authorities. Talking about the decision Smith said: \u201cWe are of course very disappointed about the CMA\u2019s decision but more than that, unfortunately, I think it\u2019s bad for Britain.\u201d The Microsoft boss continued: \u201cThe business community, the investment community, and the technology sector around the world have been following this case. The strong message the CMA has sent has surprised everyone and will discourage innovation and investment in the UK.\u201d Throughout the interview, Smith would reaffirm how he feels that Europe is \u201cattractive for investment,\u201d whilst the CMA\u2019s decision has \u201cseverely shaken,\u201d Microsoft\u2019s confidence in the UK market. Later speaking on why the acquisition got rejected Smith wasn\u2019t convinced it was an informed decision: \u201cWhen we study the decision it\u2019s based on what we feel is such a flawed and faulty understanding of the market.\u201d On why the decision doesn\u2019t make sense to him, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s all about a potential concern about what could become the cloud streaming of games like you see with movies on Netflix. But this business is so small today that Microsoft can\u2019t even stream games to more than 5,000 people at a time in the entire UK.\u201d Microsoft has already voiced plans to appeal the CMA\u2019s decision with this saga expected to continue for several months, if not years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft boss slams UK labeling CMA\u2019s Activision decision as \u201cbad for Britain\u201d MicrosoftMicrosoft President Brad Smith has slammed the UK, believing that its decision to reject the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is \u201cbad for Britain.\u201d In January 2022, it was announced that Microsoft was acquiring Activision Blizzard in a record-breaking deal worth $70 billion. Skepticism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}