Maybe it wasn’t an issue because they knew they didn’t have a case, and so they could ultimately blame the judge when things didn’t go their way? 4D Chess playing from the FTC here.
JK
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That’s what I thought. But wasn’t sure since I didn’t hear anything about about it.
Even if the burden is on the FTC, when the judge didn’t engage with MS as much, it could be another sign where she’s leaning. It could mean nothing, but I would think if the FTC succeeded in convincing her she would’ve pressed hard on MS to give them their chance.
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No matter what happens, we know that MS are serious about building the brand and Sony showed their arse as petty powerful twats who cry when someone does to them what they’ve been strangling the industry with for two decades of unchallenged power.
We have the industry we have today not because of, but in spite of, Sony’s dominaince
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I imagine FTC getting questioned so much more than MS at the end was
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Because it’s on the FTC to show why the deal is harmful, they are the ones with the issue so it’s on them to prove it
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Their arguments were really bad and I think the judge was trying to wrap her head around just what they were trying to say
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Was reading the CMA request to delay the hearing to October
At this point the CMA know they’re going to lose and lose badly and the FTC getting creamed this past week has them shook, There is no way theyd be this desparate to stall and delay if they had a decent shot at winning
All the excuses in the world
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Isn’t one of the FTC lawyers an ex-Sony lawyer or some shit?
I think it’s someone at the CMA that used to work at Sony.
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Used to work at firm that used to work for Sony, I think.
Still feels more impartial than EC staffer of “My Playstation” fame that used to be a spokesman for DG Comp.
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I feel like the dominos could be falling into place soon for this Activision deal to close soon. I’ve been wondering how the counter factual scenario is going to play out in the coming 1-2 weeks. Let’s presume that FTC pi isn’t granted. Microsoft can now close the deal. How does the thread imagine things playing out?
- Microsoft closes deal asap, leaves nothing to chance, and will deal with the CMA consequences at a later date
- Microsoft waits for CMA /CAT appeal process and extends the deadline and rolls the dice that the UK will approve.
- CMA / UK reach a quick “save face” agreement immediately upon Microsoft closing the acquisition
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Microsoft probably has some lawyers working on the CMA interim order now and I think they will use victory over the FTC to ask the CMA for a quick solution or they will take this to the UK government hoping for some quick fix. One thing is clear though everything hinges on no PI given.
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Yeah uk negotiations should hopefully be in the works now in anticipation of the ftc being denied a pi. That’s why I kind of labeled it a save face deal. UK needs to act fast though, the alternative is Microsoft closes over them and the public perception is going to be UK is basically irrelevant. They would be the only country standing in the way of the deal and instead of preventing the deal, Microsoft (and the rest of the world) just ignored the uk ruling and moved forward without them.
Historically if the FTC or DOJ loses the injunction they haven’t appealed. They just drop the case and move on. So i wouldn’t say they will appeal regardless is accurate. As while they could appeal its not guaranteed to happen if they lose.
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Having read a bit about FTC/DOJ challenges to vertical mergers, I can understand why there’s a bit of uncertainty. The two agencies until the time warner/AT&T deal hadn’t challenged a vertical merger since 1977 so about 40 years. The US courts haven’t blocked any vertical mergers since they’ve started challenging them but there were two that were abandoned before a PI could be issued, the Nvidia/ARM deal and the lockheed/Aerojet deals. It’s a bit of an unknown with the courts because of how few recent cases there are.
Did anyone bother telling Microsoft they can’t buy Japanese companies before they looked into buying sega and square
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Square Enix be like ‘what are you doing step-console?’
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It’s not true anyway. If so funny to see SONY fans now say SEGA is so important and has IP to crucial to Japanese culture that it can’t be sold to a Western corp and will be projected under Japanese law.
That’s also to overlook how the late great Isao Okawa, was looking to sell SEGA to Microsoft in 2001
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Unconditional approval in South Africa
https://twitter.com/FOSSpatents/status/1675795907755798528?t=uu7lza9eyenZ0HW52I7v1Q&s=19
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Agreed Microsoft closing over the UK will be very bad for the CMA, for one it will decrease their relevancy. Most businesses will be certain to follow so it would be in the UK’S best interest to approve once the PI is refused. I would think the government would forcefully step in to approve if the CMA still tries to hold-up the other would be if the deal could be postponed for a few months for the CAT. This though is doubtful to me. I don’t think Microsoft or ABK is interested in renegotiating as it might increase the price. They can go to court and drop the fines to a few millions.
Indeed. Look, the two most senior politicians in the UK have both been wringing their hands about the CMA and you can clearly tell they want this deal approved, but have their hands tied. They have tried to leverage as much influence as they can upon the CMA to try to approve ABK, but it seems the CMA are being particularly activist about it.
Ultimately, if the CMA does make this deal fail, it will likely sound the death knell for the CMA in it’s current form. The reputational damage done to the UK as a place to do business will be so bad that the government will feel compelled to restructure the whole CMA and it’s approach to mergers.
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Kinda wild to see how many places give unconditional approval, makes CMA’s decision look more and more irrational, but I assume they don’t count to CMA because the countries that give unconditional approval aren’t USA/EU.
We only have 1 regulator that has forced remedies being EC right? so 2 being FTC/CMA don’t want to do remedies and the rest don’t need remedies because they believe there is no concern.
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