Microsoft president Brad Smith is set to voice his frustration over the CMA’s Activision acquisition block via a meeting with the UK chancellor next week.
Ahead of Xbox’s appeal to try and reverse the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) decision to block its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in court later this July, Microsoft CEO Brad Smith is set to meet with UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt in a final bid to get its Microsoft Activision deal approved once and for all. The meeting will occur next week where, according to a report from Bloomberg, Smith hopes to “point to the benefits of the acquisition for gamers” based in the UK.
Should the CMA’s verdict be upheld and Microsoft isn’t allowed to operate as Activision Blizzard ’s parent company on British shores, it’s likely that the tech giant will need to find other avenues to distribute games like Diablo, Overwatch and potentially even Call of Duty in this territory. That’s despite Microsoft previously making promises to keep the latter on PlayStation consoles in an attempt to dissuade competition fears.
