Tag Archives: European Commission

EU Approves Microsoft’s $75 Billion Activision Blizzard Deal



The European Union’s antitrust watchdog approved Microsoft’s planned $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, giving the two companies a win after the deal hit a regulatory roadblock the U.K., The Wall Street Journal reported.

The European Commission, the bloc’s competition enforcer, said it cleared the deal based on commitments by Microsoft to make Activision’s games, including those from its popular Call of Duty franchise, available on rival cloud-streaming platforms.

The companies still need approval from other major competition authorities to close the transaction, legal experts say.

The commission’s decision comes weeks after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority rejected the merger, saying it would crimp competition in the country’s games market. Microsoft has said it would appeal that decision, Monday’s approval in Brussels won’t have any direct legal bearing on that process, and antitrust lawyers say Microsoft faces long odds in overturning the British decision.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sued Microsoft to block the deal and scheduled a hearing for the case in its administrative court for August. Still, the EU’s decision means Microsoft has cleared at least one of the three biggest regulatory hurdles that it had faced in pursuing the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported.

TechCrunch reported that Microsoft’s proposed remedies, which include the promise to allow all consumers in the European Economic Area (EEA) to stream all current and future Activision games via any cloud-based game streaming service for the next 10 year.

According to TechCrunch, the EC’s decision follows a couple of months after Japan approved the deal, though Europe has made it clear that it intends to implement checks on how Microsoft’s actions impact rival gaming companies in the future. It said that an “independent trustee” will be in charge of monitoring Microsoft’s implementation of its commitments.

TechCrunch also reported that the U.K.’s competition regulars was always going to be in the spotlight if the EC’s decision differed to greatly from its own. Shortly after the outcome was revealed, the CMA took to Twitter to confirm that it would be standing by its own decision, stating that the EC had effectively allowed Microsoft to call all the shots in the cloud gaming market for the next decade.

CNBC reported that the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said that Microsoft offered remedies in the nascent area of cloud gaming that have staved off antitrust concerns. These remedies centered on allowing users to stream Activision games they purchase on any cloud streaming platform.

According to CNBC, regulators globally have been probing whether Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision could distort competition in the console and cloud gaming market. One area regulators questioned is whether Microsoft might take Activision games and keep them excessively on the U.S.giant’s own platforms.

Despite the EU approval, CNBC reported, Microsoft faces a tough task of convincing rivals such as Sony and other regulators, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, that the Activision takeover will not harm competition.

Personally, I want the Microsoft acquisition of Activision to go through. Based on everything I’ve read, the acquisition would be good for gamers because it will enable them to play Activision Blizzard games though their PCs and consoles. The more access to games, the better for the gaming community!


EU Commission To Approve Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition



EU antitrust regulators are set to approve Microsoft Corp’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision next week, with May 15 as the likeliest date, people familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported.

The European Commission’s imminent clearance comes nearly three weeks after the UK competition authority blocked the deal, the biggest-ever deal in gaming, over concerns it would hinder competition in cloud gaming.

The EU antitrust enforce is expected to clear the acquisition after Microsoft agreed to licensing deal with cloud streaming rivals including Nvidia, Ukraine’s Boosteroid, and Japan’s Ubitus, other people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters in March.

It also has an agreement with Nintendo to bring Activision’s Call of Duty to its gaming platforms should the acquisition go through, U.S. distributor Valve Corp, owner of the world’s largest video game distribution platform, Steam, declined a contract saying it trusts Microsoft.

The Commission, which has set a May 22 deadline for its decision, declined to comment.

VideoGamesChronicle reported that the European Commission has confirmed plans to publish its verdict by May 22, and it has previously been claimed that Microsoft’s willingness to offer game licensing deals to rivals is likely to address its antitrust concerns.

According to VideoGamesChronicle, last month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was preventing the deal due to concerns about its impact on the future of the cloud gaming market.

Microsoft and Activision quickly confirmed their intention to appeal the CMA’s ruling, which the former had called “bad for Britain” and the latter has labeled “irrational”.

Microsoft has reportedly hired a lawyer known for repeatedly defeating the EU regulator in competition cases to lead its appeal against the CMA’s decision.

Windows Central appears to be skeptical about the outcome, and posted a headline titled: “This report says the EU will approve Microsoft’s Activision deal for Xbox, but will it?”

Windows Central wrote: Microsoft is currently in the process of trying to acquire Activision-Blizzard-King, makers of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush Saga. The deal has been fraught with regulatory scrutiny, with Sony PlayStation decrying the deal to regulators across the globe.

The UK regulatory arm known as the CMA blocked the deal a few weeks ago, Windows Central wrote, claiming that it would give Microsoft a monopoly in this very, very nascent market – a market in which Microsoft says it can only serve to 5,000 concurrent users in the UK.

In my opinion, anyone who has been paying close attention to the Microsoft – Activision Blizzard acquisition has been on an emotional roller coaster, waiting to see what the various regulators of different countries will decide. I’m hoping the EU antitrust regulators will approve of the acquisition.


European Commission Staff Banned From Using TikTok



The European Commission posted a press release titled: “Commission strengthens cybersecurity and suspends the use of TikTok on its corporate devices”. From the press release:

“To increase its cybersecurity, the Commission’s Corporate Management Board has decided to suspend the use of the TikTok application on its corporate devices and on personal devices enrolled in the Commission mobile device service. The measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyber-attacks against the corporate environment of the Commission. The security developments of other social media platforms will also be kept under constant review.

“The measure is in line with Commission strict internal cybersecurity policies for use of mobile devices for work-related communications. It complements long-standing Commission advice to staff to apply best practices when using social media platforms and keep high-level of cyber awareness in their daily work.

“The Commission is committed to ensuring that its staff is well protected against increasing cyber threats and incidents. It is, therefore, our duty to respond as early as possible to potential cyber alerts.

“Today’s suspension is an internal corporate decision which is strictly limited to the use of devices enrolled in its mobile service.”

In an unprecedented move, the European Commission has banned staff from using the Chinese social media app TikTok over security concerns, in the latest example of growing strains between Beijing and the West, Politico reported.

According to Politico, western governments are increasingly alarmed by evidence that Chinese technology companies assist the Communist Party and its intelligence services in gathering vast amounts of data all over the world – with a particular focus on high-value political and security targets.

A senior official told Politico that all staff were ordered on Thursday morning to remove TikTok from their official devices and that they must also remove the app from their personal devices if they have any work-related apps installed.

Alternatively, the staff member can delete work-related apps from their personal phones if they insist on keeping TikTok.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the European Commission has banned its staff from using the TikTok app on their work-issued devices from March 15 because of cybersecurity concerns, widening across the Atlantic a patchwork of bans affecting U.S. officials.

The move, The Wall Street Journal reported, would affect thousands of employees of the European Union’s top executive body, comes as officials in Europe and the U.S. scrutinize TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., over security concerns.

A commission spokeswoman said staff were told to remove TikTok if it was installed on their work devices. Personal devices that have work-related apps, such a a professional email app, were also banned from having TikTok, she said. The decision was made by the commission’s corporate management board.

It is unclear to me why anyone would want to put apps like TikTok onto their work-related devices. The European Commission has the authority to require its staff to remove TikTok (and potentially other social media apps) off of their work-phones. I can see why the Commission is concerned about security risks from apps that typically appear to be entertaining.