Microsoft president Brad Smith admits UK regulator was "tough and fair" on Activision Blizzard deal

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksmod to Games@sh.itjust.works – 21 points –
Microsoft president Brad Smith admits UK regulator was "tough and fair" on Activision Blizzard deal
eurogamer.net
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They blocked the deal at first, because of concerns with Cloud gaming. Microsoft made concessions and made a deal with Ubisoft, and it got approved.

But the praise comes after US regulators tried to appeal the green light to undo the merger. I think this is actually shade at the US for challenging the decision

The praise comes after he gets asked about the UK regulators on a UK show. Like I said, the CMA initially also tried to block it, just like the FTC, so it wouldn't make sense to me to single one of them out.

You single one out because they started to push back and then relented, and you want the other one to also relent while they are currently pushing back. And by calling the first one fair, you make it so the second one can also look fair in the court of public opinion if they back down.

The platform doesnt mean a whole lot, since these conversations are pre screened pretty often. Its hard to know if they had been given prep time or not, and that means we cant know to what degree this PR statement is pre planned.