Microsoft towards EU investigation into Teams. And slow down the acquisition of Activision
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Microsoft Corp. and Activision Blizzard Inc. take time to sign the historic 69 billion dollar asset purchase agreement: according to Bloomberg reports, it is unlikely that the agreement can be reached today, Tuesday 18 July, the formal deadline for expiry of the negotiations, but according to sources close to the dossier who have requested anonymity, the two companies will continue to confront each other until an agreement is reached.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports today, the European Commission has decided to open a formal investigation into Microsoft over allegations of having unfairly bundled the Teams videoconferencing application with Office software. Next week, the Commission will open a formal investigation into allegations of abuse of a dominant position by Microsoft – the first investigation of its kind in over a decade – after deeming the concessions by the US group insufficient, as stated on July 17 by four persons directly aware of the reflections of the competition supervisory authority. Two of those people added that the commission could issue formal charges against Microsoft as early as the fall.
The obstacles of the regulators to the acquisition process
In recent days, the possibility of a white smoke in the negotiations for the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft has become more concrete, in the face of the fact that the Federal Trade Commission of the United States has failed to block the acquisition process in court, and a lengthening of the timeframe should allow the two companies to overcome the regulatory obstacles that have emerged in Great Britain, the only important jurisdiction – after the go-ahead from EU regulators – which has forbidden them to complete the agreement at the instigation of the British Authority for competition and markets.
Microsoft is the manufacturer of the XBox console. And buying Activision Blizzard would jeopardize the availability of one of the most popular video games in the world for other platforms. Hence the slowdown by US and European regulators.
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