The acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is probably one of the longest acquisition processes to date as legislature from UK, US, and EU continue to consider whether the merger would break anti-competition laws.
There are a lot of hiccups with this deal as a gaming giant is engulfing another gaming giant because of that, it’s easy to see why people might be iffy with the acquisition. However, there’s a recent interview with Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft that touched on this topic.
Satya said that the deal will only bring more competitiveness to the market, something they’ve been saying for quite some time now. Ultimately, he said that he’s going to submit to the regulator’s decision on whether it’ll pass or not, but asked them to reflect on whether the deal is really going to bring competition or not. He also pointed out Microsoft’s share in the console market in Japan during the interview.
His point about the console market is something to touch upon as Microsoft’s share in the console market in Asia, according to Statista, is only one percent while Sony accounted for almost 99% of the market. There are also reports that said that the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console in 2022.
The acquisition has gone through a lot of hiccups with Google and NVIDIA also concerned about the deal. The FTC also has something to say about the deal which isn’t a good thing for Microsoft. Microsoft still hopes that the deal will go through but as it stands, it seems that they still have a long way to go.
