I really do like you folks, genuinely, but I’m going to laugh my freakin ass off when this deal doesn’t close this week and you all come here to cry and moan about it. Stop getting hype over shit Twitter says! Yeah, the CMA is approving today, just like we got Final Fantasy VII Remake at TGS.
People aren’t getting it’s closing this week from some rando on twitter though lol, Tom Warren said he got sources from Microsoft they expect to close on the 13th so that’s when most of us expect it to be done. That means Microsoft probably expects them to approve it on the 12th and give it 24hrs to finalise everything. CMA could be sly and approve it on the 13th to give MS a hassle to close over the weekend or on the next Monday which is entirely possible.
With Bethesda Microsoft closed the deal a day after the EC approved it. Also no need to be so toxic, I doubt people would be upset in the way you make out to be if it’s not today or tomorrow, they have a deadline of the 18th so it could actually be all the way into next week, people just want it to be over with already and it really doesn’t matter if it’s the 13th or 18th just the wait is annoying that’s all because we all know what’s gonna happen.
CMA have until 18th to do anything…it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it was the 18th. MS can close 19th.
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My point was people here put too much stock in what insiders post. I have no doubt Tom has his sources, he’s been covering MS long enough, but he’s still just posting what he hears and folks take it as gospel. And when things don’t happen, people get mad. Also, didn’t intend for this to come off as aggressive as it sounded. I was trying for playful?..maybe I’ll throw an emoji in next time.
Can they? I thought the agreement end date was the 18th
He has been right about this sort of thing very recently so I don’t doubt him at all, again doesn’t really matter if it’s today tomorrow or the 18th we’re all just hoping it’s today
That just allows them to pull out if it they don’t want the deal anymore and I highly doubt they would even if the CMA did that, ABK would have no reason to pull out with all regulators approving it. I wonder if CMA do approve it on the 18th but MS can’t complete it by days end then what the hell happens if ABK did pull out because it would be on them as they have all the approvals of the key regulators they had set out before the deal date lol. If ABK did pull out I think Microsoft would be off the hook for the termination fee.
Yeah - the date is simply a date you can’t exit by without penalty. Going a day or two past 18th won’t (or likely won’t) be a big issue.
I hope the CMA pull their finger out before then so we don’t have to find out.
My best guess (though everyone is guessing) is tomorrow or Monday…fingers crossed!
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It’d be an absolutely horrendous look for the UK if they keep inflicting additional legal fees and uncertainty on Microsoft by dragging their feet, deliberately or just by being procedurally slow.
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Does anyone know how long it took last time from public comment to decision?
I was trying to find it on the website which suggests around 21 days but I don’t remember it being that long.
Going by the book the UK isn’t doing this, they state which part of the Enterprise Act the deadlines are set from and what the actual dates are in their decision document for the restructured deal. So MS/Acti. were fully informed and should have worked the restructure of the merger agreement aaround those dates to ensure they didn’t incur additional costs if the decision came on the last allowable date.
Which I’m assuming they did as the new wording explicitly states that “• Any termination fee will only be paid if the deal fails to close.”
So you’d assume a decision 18th and closing withing a few days does not fit “fails to close”
Forgetting all that though and looking at the way the CMA as an org. has behaved throughout this whole process I agree that they would indeed be taking the piss if they drag this out until the last possible minute.
They would have just came up with a reason to delay to the new closing date. They have done that every step of the way to purposefully make this as painful as humanly possible.
By now Phil and the company may have known the verdict of CMA and preparing there address notes.
The entire team must be feeling incredible right now.
Nothing is ever easy with this deal. Midnight on the 18th the CMA will approve.
Wasn’t the CMAs deadline for a decision the 16th or 17th? Why does everyone seem to think it will be today?
Tom Warren said MS are looking to close tomorrow. He might well be wrong, though and it’ll happen next week.
I dunno they are essentially doing an unprecedented thing here for them at unprecedented pace.
I have some sympathy with their view that once they unveiled their cloud concerns MS could have been working this option up. Its clear to me that MS took some poor advice before considering a potentially acceptable restructure and the delay is mainly down to that.
Its one thing fighting if you aren’t interested in a restructure but phase 1 MS could have addressed cloud concerns with this deal then. Instead of waiting. Plenty of people were suggesting that it would need a structural remedy at that very point so its not like this was unforseen. As Phil says its been a learning process.
Merger reviews have taken a maximum of 14 months prior to this. They made this a painful process on their end.