Daily Mail

Microsoft’s European charm offensive

Top brass hold crunch talks in Brussels over £57bn Call of Duty deal

- From Calum Muirhead in Brussels

Microsoft faced a showdown with European regulators yesterday as it stepped up its battle to win approval for its £57bn takeover of call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.

At a tense closed-door hearing in Brussels, the Us tech giant insisted its buyout of the video game group would ‘bring more competitio­n’ to the market.

the last-ditch charm offensive came amid concerns regulators will block the deal or require the firm to sell key parts of Activision to ensure it goes through.

the takeover would be Microsoft’s biggest- ever acquisitio­n, but critics claim it would give the firm too much power and squeeze out competitor­s.

Britain’s competitio­n and Markets Authority (cMA) has warned the takeover would result in higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation.

one major opponent is Japan’s sony, whose Playstatio­n console is the biggest rival to Microsoft’s Xbox. it wants regulators to block the merger outright.

the hearing saw a delegation of 18 senior executives including Microsoft president Brad smith, its gaming division head Phil spencer and Activision boss Bobby Kotick make their case before the EU’s antitrust body.

An army of around 100 lawyers, offifrance, cials and critics of the deal, including sony and Google owner Alphabet, were present at the meeting.

Gaming group Valve, owner of online game marketplac­e steam, and competitio­n watchdogs from countries including Germany, italy and spain, also took part. smith said Microsoft wanted to ‘make clear that our acquisitio­n of Activision Blizzard will bring more games to more people on more devices and platforms than ever before’. He said the firm was more than willing to address the watchdog’s concerns, particular­ly fears it could make its most valuable games exclusive to Xbox users, shutting out competitor­s.

Aside from call of Duty, the acquisitio­n will give Microsoft control of World of Warcraft, an online multiplaye­r fantasy game with around 125m subscriber­s.

such a move would provide a large boost to the company’s portfolio of successful gaming titles, which already include scifi shooter Halo and the worldbuild­ing game Minecraft.

Microsoft has denied claims it plans to make call of Duty exclusive. it said last night it has struck a deal with computer graphics card maker nvidia to bring its titles to the latter’s streaming platform Geforce now, taking out a key critic of the original deal. it followed a similar deal signed earlier this week with nintendo.

smith said he was ‘more optimistic’ about getting the merger over the line following the gathering at the European commission’s headquarte­rs.

He said: ‘We’re more than willing, given our strategy, to address the concerns that others have, whether it’s by contracts, like we did with nintendo ... or whether it’s by regulatory undertakin­gs.’

But the company faces an uphill battle as regulators in the UK, the EU and the Us become increasing­ly sceptical.

Earlier this month, the cMA suggested Microsoft may need to sell the part of Activision connected to call of Duty as it threatened to block the merger.

When asked about the possibilit­y of selling parts of the business, smith said he ‘didn’t see a viable path’ to offloading a core property of Activision, such as call of Duty, and was unconvince­d regulators would make such a request. He said it was ‘not feasible’ for such a property to be carved out.

Both UK and EU regulators are set to make a final decision in April. in the Us, the federal trade commission is in a legal battle to block the transactio­n.

regulators are concerned Microsoft’s dominance following the merger could also affect the market for cloud gaming – a type of service that lets players stream games over the internet without discs or downloads in a manner similar to netflix with tV shows and films.

sony’s opposition was also unlikely to abate, but smith said he hoped the sides would eventually ‘reach a deal’.

 ?? ?? In the crosshairs: Call of Duty is a massive hit for Activision
In the crosshairs: Call of Duty is a massive hit for Activision

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