Jim Ryan is as active as Todd Howard on social media platform.
Seems like Microsoft investors are glad the deal got blocked cause the stock has just jumped up.
I had a feeling this deal would be blocked for some reason. Not for good reasons just blocked. Looking at this seems like at minimum 6 months for an appeal so we are looking at October, possibly 2024. With the delay there is also word they might have to renegotiate the deal as well cause it could be well past the close date.
This has clearly prevented Xbox from any other acquisitions and has definitely slowed them down on that front.
Definitely feels like a long wasted year from the brand. Thankfully Redfall and Starfield are coming out, maybe that can distract from this. Maybe.
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Wonāt someone think of the children (Nintendo)
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Itās pretty amazing when you think about it. MS didnāt acquire a cloud gaming company, nor are they acquiring any additional cloud tech. Instead, they are acquiring content that could be used to help bolster their position in a market that barely exists and has a very unknown future.
There is no shortage of gaming content and you can easily draw parallels to video streaming. Netflix was the de-facto service, but now everyone seems to have their own service. Thereās literally nothing (besides capital) stopping other companies from creating cloud platforms and securing old and new studios and IP.
The Idea that Call of Duty is the end all be all of gaming is so monstrously ludicrous that no serious person who even remotely understands the industry would entertain it.
The CMAās decision has real āthe internet is tubes!ā energy to it. 
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oh hey at least we have another ot to be made lol
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Didnāt you hear how COD decreases the travel time on the information highway! 
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CMA:
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So based on this decision, hypothetically speaking Microsoft could have shut down itās Xbox Cloud Streaming business/division, partner with Nvidia (and other providers) and this deal would have sailed through.
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Im not blaming the French. Simply saying Sudi money is buying most sport . Blaming the Tories is very too .
Iāll remind you, the takeover of Man City happend under a Labour Gov
There are so many holes in their arguments, Sony, Nintendo, Epic, Tencent with its huge amount of studios could all launch cloud services to good success.
Did Amazon having aws give them an unfair advantage over Netflix? Not really. The punishment for being the first is so damaging to investment, like if Xbox introduced xcloud this year everything would have been fine?
Not to mention, xcloud isnāt even a separate service, they are literally providing it for free in game pass.
Also if increasing the prices of xcloud/game pass is bad then people will unsub, and buy games like they always have, all the niche scenarios they have tried to construct are ridiculous.
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Not really, the shares were trading higher after hours last night due to the financial results which beat expectations and the forecast which was very positive
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Sony was the first one to invenst like more than 10 years ago when they bought Gaikai and Onlive, you ask me, what were they doing? All Microsoft did wasā¦ a basic sample since you canāt play your owned games yet.
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Didnāt realise I needed protecting as a UK gamer who plays on Xbox and GeForce Now. Until today.
Thanks CMA for protecting UK gamers from CoD on Game Pass and GeForce Now. Ta very much.
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Microsoft has the cash to expand & increase profits, whether itās the Activision acquisition or something else. Thatās why the shares arenāt dropping nor are investors panicking.
Itās also what makes the block so insane considering itās self funded. Microsoft can afford it. Unlike Disney for example who required financial backing to acquire Fox. Itās absurdistan when deals done by parties with the means to pay themselves (& also not in a market dominance position either) get blocked.
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On the plus side of all this is that Microsoft isnāt giving up on the Activision deal, still seems really strange why CMA would block it. I mean this deal benefits pretty much everyone including those without COD at the moment (like Nintendo for example).
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They never would have due to this or any other acquisition. Microsoft prints money, the share holders want it to get used to make them more money. Be that acquisitions, share buybacks or dividends.
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It doesnāt seem weird, it seems corrupt or ideological.
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SLC are supposed to be balanced against RCBs. The CMAās final report hand waved the RCBs from the deals away.
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Ideology seems to be the only real answer. Big company getting bigger. I still expect this to eventually blow back in the UKās face. Both a decrease in tech spending there plus some pushback within the US government as weāve seen from senators with the whole Sony blocking deals
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