Wonder if the 9th circuit judges will ask why the FTC waited so long to file for an injunction especially when the agency has come under fire for it’s time wasting and extending the process as seen in the Supreme Court case?
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I wonder if MS and ABK have already extended their agreement. Though they would need to make it public ASAP? Or MS will simply close over the CMA, knowing there would be no blowback?
MS should close over CMA. Period.
You could have done a better job the first time around, not now where you are getting fucked for it.
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I have super limited knowledge about this, but what would happen if MS didn’t close before the 18th? That’s the deadline, right?
Also, this is becoming so freaking tiresome. Just when it looked it was a done deal.
From the notice
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It is not a deadline, per se, but after that date MS needs to extend he 18 month window for diligence, at a cost of $3 billion. So either it closes before or MS walk away this weekend, but after that it is a cost of $3billion.
There is two deadlines this weekend - the restraining order expires tonight, and the dillgence window closes on Tuesday. So if MS are going to close “over” the CMA it’ll happen tomorrow.
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Does anyone have a definite answer to the question “can the deal close without the cma?”
Don’t think we know yet. What appears to be happening is unprecedented. The CMA have delayed their final order to review the new proposed structure. What happens now is a question of whether the interim order stays in place or whether that is now gone and in which case MS can close pending the CMA’s final decision.
But I don’t know for sure. My guess is they probably can close. But please someone more informed can say….
I would guess that Microsoft have known this for a while so I don’t really see an issue. I would guess they already have an extension with ABK already negotiated or they plan on closing and keeping ABK separate till everything is finalised
Yeah this is the tricky part, there’s a lot of people saying one way over the other on the internet but Microsoft has a team of very expensive lawyers looking at these exact issues - if anyone knows any route around this issue it’s them.
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The wording from Activision implies it might be the latter.
Whatever it will be, it is still funny how the idea of carving out a part of Activision that was ridiculed in certain places might actually happen in the end.
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I think carving out globally was the ridiculous part - local concessions make sense and probably were on the table at all points.
No. It was carving out a UK specific part. For some reason people thought it was ridiculous and impossible when, as you say, it was always on the table all but as a last resort.
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FTC is behaving like a annoying little kid that won’t take no for an answer, ffs.
We are in the “save face” timeline.
You guys make this CMA thing way too difficult sometimes. When the cma and Microsoft paused the CAT appeal to renegotiate, it was the CMA’s way of saving face, because Xbox would’ve just closed over them. Now when Microsoft closes the deal this week it won’t embarrass the cma by making thier ban on closing seem feckless and irrelevant. The ban is lifted, when Microsoft closes it won’t be considered closing over the cma.
The real question is what kind of deal is the cma going to make for uk gamers in the coming month. All signs point to them making things worse like removing cloud in the uk just so the cma can claim their “win”.
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If someone has the answer, please forward to CMA, I bet they hardly know.
The thing to consider here is unless the CMA have completely blindsided MS with this 29th August date announce (which id not entirely rule out as a possibility) then MS’ actions suggest they want to close now. If they knew about this beforehand they would not really be bothered about this FTC appeal as the CMA date runs into the FTC’s own kangaroo court nonsense.
Looks like to me. We went from “you close … but we said no !! please listen to us” this week to “you have closed and after further inspection we agree on it” at the end of August (or before).
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https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1679786334263574528?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
If you need a recap that is long as Bloodline plot.
I also think this latest CMA statement might a a positive one.
It gives the impression that MS have come back with something that is, in the eyes of the CMA at least, potentially meaningful enough to satisfy them. They want to look at it and see if it gives them an off ramp. that saves face.
It is likely to be the rumoured divestiture of UK Cloud gaming, probably to EE.
That would suck for me as a UK customer, currently on Vodafone. So instead of getting a service originally offered, I’d have to pay MORE money to a different company to get the same service I currently get.
It is insane, but it seems that this is where we are heading.
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