Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has been getting a lot of attention over the past few hours courtesy of an interview he recently conducted with CNBC, in which he addressed Microsoft's attempted takeover of Activision Blizzard.
In the interview, which was recorded prior to the European Commission's approval of the acquisition, Nadella admitted that he was "very much" surprised by the UK CMA's decision to block the deal:
"The fundamental logic of this deal bringing more competition, and more opportunity for publishers and gamers, still holds. So, as far as I'm concerned, we keep going... we have a process, we obviously respect the sovereignty of the United Kingdom and the CMA to decide what's good in that country."
Following these comments, Nadella was asked whether there could ever be a situation where Microsoft would essentially skip the UK if the deal was approved in all other regions, which led to an interesting reply:
Host: "Could you ever see an age where you would sell the product in the U.S. if it was approved, sell the products in Europe, and not sell it in the UK if they didn't approve it?"
Nadella: "Let's wait for it all to play out".
Naturally, this response has led to a lot of raised eyebrows, but realistically we can't imagine Microsoft would ever go down this route - it just doesn't seem very plausible to us. Then again, this deal has dished out its fair share of surprises!
For now at least, Microsoft is clearly putting a lot of effort into trying to convince the UK CMA their verdict was wrong, having announced plans to formally appeal the authority's decision to block the Activision Blizzard takeover. That's the big focus right now, and it might take quite a while until we find out if the appeal proves successful.