Report: Microsoft President To Discuss Activision Blizzard Deal With UK Chancellor This Week

Wait, what! Discuss? Not according to the person that penned the corresponding article on Pure. Apparently Microsoft are looking to 'threaten' and 'intimidate'. Someone, somewhere has a nose that is growing exponentially.

Fanning the flames of console wars is just ridiculous...

Microsoft are a business and it'll come down to cold hard numbers. They have an operating profit of 300million in the UK per year. The penalty to pay to AB if the deal doesn't go through is 3billion.
The idea that MS are saying "empty threats" and "intimidation" is just factually wrong. From a business sense they really could pull out the UK market, not from pettiness but just due to the finances.
It's precisely because of this that their comments need to be taken seriously. Real UK jobs are at risk and it's currently through no fault of MS but the CMA. Discussions obviously have to be had.

I reckon Jeremy Hunt doesn't know what an Activision or an Xbox is

@Ephexis83 totally agree but I bet he sees the £ signs

I frequent Eurogamer for gaming news, and they reported this yesterday. It's really frustrating to see comments section there and even on Pushsqure to certain extent.

'Extreme' option is to withdraw Activision business entity from UK, it doesn't impact UK gamers ability to buy or access Activision games. They can always publish via a distributor. It will have major impact on Development and Publishing staff in UK though.

@Ephexis83 I highly doubt the majority of politicians, typically out of touch regardless of political party, know or care about any given console or game studio.
That said, they will be familiar with the element of this that affects employment, investment, corporation taxes, and media spin.
Upsetting enormous employers and investors isn'ttypically the route politicians take (unless pandering to the lunatic extremities of the left or right), so much like not windfall taxing the energy companies back to the EU and costing us thousands of jobs and billions in investment I would think he'll be keen to avoid having Microsoft, or indeed any major tech investor, desert British shores on account of bizarre CMA decisions without factually accurate basis.

@Martsmall
You'd certainly hope the Chancellor see's the £ signs. It's sorta his job description to realise the CMA decision will only lead to a loss in investment and jobs in the long run.

@GrumpyGrey I wasnt thinking that ,I was more along the lines of when there is a scandal and he resigns like most mps nowadays ,they could give him a nice little job if he sorts out the acti mess

Sony are allowed to fly over to countries and hold private backdoor meetings, Xbox is allowed to hold discussions. Its called business.

@Kaloudz Push seems to play to their demographic, seeing as the most vocal and interactive users are dogmatic in their views, it makes sense to capitalise on that, sadly. This site is brilliant, give or take a few agents of negativity haha.

Hunt hahaha, firstly Brad can apologise for his belittling childish remarks he made towards the UK when the deal was blocked.
Then Hunt will tell him give me 5 million cash and 5% stock options in Microsoft and we'll talk. Oh and stop using out loopholes to avoid taxes is another thing Hunt will probably say.

If I ever met Hunt I cannot guarantee I wouldn't smack him n his face he's such a traitorous greedy selfish sod.

@Martsmall Yes, I completely agree. Seem to recall Gordon Brown presiding over the meltdown of the UK economy having failed to regulate the banks during his time as UK Chancellor and PM, as well as widespread abuse of expense accounts by members of Parliament, including members of Brown’s cabinet, only to end up being offered a senior role at the IMF of all places.
Don't think he got the job, but he did still get a silver spoon from the UN or some other international banking commission.
It'll be interesting to see how the politics play out with CMA and FTC given the UK need for investment and the polarisation of the increasingly partisan US. Regulators are one thing to contend, economies are increasingly conflicting and centre stage.

@x3King84 You kind of highlighted the bad thinking the CMA and FTC have been engaging in with this. Making judgements based on the size of "Microsoft" which is not a valid decision, the decision isn't about the size if Microsoft, the decision is supposed to be about the size of Microsoft's presence in the affected gaming market....in which they are currently a minor player only. MS's role in the office productivity software industry has nothing to do with their role in the games industry for regulatory purposes. But that's the mistake both organizations and a lot of public opinion seems to come from, looking ta "Microsoft" the OS/Office vendor, and not MS's role in video games and effect on the market.

A similar but not real direction would be regulating Amazon's grocery business based on the strength of their cloud services business despite larger retail competitor Walmart having a total chokehold on grocery and Amazon's grocery business being....kind of like the Xbox of broccoli.

@Moonglow I think the fact you believe 3 people have blocked the deal shows how little you do know and understand. Stop taking your advice from Reddit or You Tube, God I’ve made that mistake, and Google for the actual facts.
CMA is made up of a majority of people from the regulatory body we had to have under the EU, they are expanding by around 200 people, when they review cases they have panels of experts internal AND external who review and rule on the cases in hand,

It is not 3 people, and another FYI is Microsoft’s 2 biggest markets have blocked the deal, Xbox is not very dominant across the rest of Europe, so maybe the experienced regulators who’s markets Microsoft is most prominent in blocking it should tell you something?
The EU themselves stated that the merger WOULD damage the cloud gaming market, that’s why they not MS came up with the free licenses for all games on all cloud services, which MS then spread to be global. I think the fact the EU only approved it with that clause in place should tell you something.
We shall see if the CMA is asked to review it again, if they also look at the same clause as the EU has setup, if it is workable and works in our law frame.

I suspect what you will find is IF the CAT requests the CMA to review the merger again then they may look into the same system as the EU has setup and if it covers all their concerns, OR IF the CAT accept the CMA’s decision and rule it stands, Activision Blizzard King will move any offices in the UK to the EU and sell their games and services via UK distributors, which legally has to be done before the merger completes.

@Kaloudz Brad Smith certainly comes across as the sort of person who would intimidate and threaten I have to say, considering his childish remarks when the CMA blocked the deal. Acted like a baby throwing its toys out of the pram, not a highly paid powerful executive of one of the worlds largest companies.

But he’ll be a good pairing with Hunt who is the same type of character, just replace the first letter of his name if you know what I mean.

@GrumpyGrey Considering Hunt and his wife’s company was officially investigated for fraud, he sees too many ££££ signs… let’s not even mention his wife and her antics.

@pip_muzz Where did you get those figures from? As that will be for Xbox exclusively I take it, I couldn’t find those results. Only ones I can see are the ones posted at Companies House as legally required, where they clearly show figured in the billions:

http://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01624297/filing-history

@S1ayeR74 Don't forget that the figures in Billions are turnover. The old business saying rings true.
Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity.
On the very form you link to, on page 2 of the most recent document it states that MS recorded a profit pre tax of £228,618,000 which is actually 75million lower than the 300million I originally quoted.

Oops, @Kaloudz! Yes, I did mean Push. As for neutral...

I get your point, @Moonglow, and maybe it's just me that sees the way this same story has been written up on Push (not Pure!) as poking the fanboys for a reaction. However, I still don't think Microsoft 'pushing hard' (your own words) is the same as threatening or intimidating. Forcefully stating your position, and the consequences if things pan out in a manner that is not of your choosing, is neither threatening or intimidating. It's not like Microsoft are holding a gun to the heads of those in charge of the CMA, and stating that they will blow up their headquarters upon leaving the Country. They are merely stating their position. We might consider it a nuclear option, but Microsoft and ABK see it in terms of cold, hard numbers. And if those numbers say the deal is more important than the UK market alone, then that's the way they will go...

Its kinda sad any article that comes out about this and any reference to Sony fans reaction is measured by the comment threads on one site that on the whole contains such a miniscule portion of the wider playstation fanbase. Similar on that site referencing the community here just as bad over there. Its a little bit toxic.

Anyway old fuddy duddy moaning aside. Its a common thing big corps trying to get politicians on side but they normally use lobbying firms to do it!

@Kaloudz That would be incredibly dangerous precedent to set, if a cabinet minister undermines and over rules an independent regulatory body.

@pip_muzz Yeah not as much as I thought it would be.

Get those bribes in.

@Kaloudz you guys need to check N4G... Not only the articles that seem to attack Xbox in every way possible and sweeten anything PS... The community is filled with hate to Xbox, they will make you feel PS is the spiderman and xbox is Green Goblen (twisted villain)

@Kaloudz iv been banned for no reason they report anyone who is not Sony fanboy or defend xbox lol such childish community,actually it's sad how media love to attack Xbox for the sake of views and traffic, but they can't say a word about PS.... I hope xbox will rock on this showcase and have great reviews on games released that could be a huge help to push back, and yes reviews made by a single person and published on a channel have more impact on game performance than anything else those days... Sad poeple don't have an opinion those days

@Kaloudz I won't mind if the website was named PS4N or something, but for a website that should be neutral but writers and community is so toxic, the website is already blue they just need to make it officiel lol, people there used to heavily critisize live service games now they say it good, they attack Xbox for taking confidential info of kids (yesterday) but they never talk about PS store overcharge in UK case in court, they bash Xbox for every single thing, like no physical release for redfall, but ignore PS4 games not working on PS5..... I m a fan of xbox yes since yeaaars but i m not ganna pull punches when I'm not satisfied with Xbox.... Something PS fanboys seem to not understand... This is why PS already started milking them (70$ for remasters, 50$ increase on consoles,inferior PS premuim for 18$, no backward compatibility, Ps1 Ps2 games thro subscription only, 10$ next gen upgrade scam) now they want to use there fanbase to have better chance on a successful live service game (you know that fanboys of sony will praise there games whatever it takes)
Well let them learn the hard way! Sony has 20 studios half of them are support studios and many of them working on the next 12 live stream game.... Only few left to devolop SP games that thwir fans loves

@Kaloudz you know that they say Microsoft is trying to buy its way with uk chancellor and that microsoft is dirty when one of CMA big heads is working with sony on mergers as 3rd party.... Thats a total conflict of interest but this is ignored by those twisted fans