UK not hostile to tech, says regulator after Microsoft block

COMPETITION chiefs have denied making Britain a “hostile environment” for businesses after they blocked Microsoft’s $69bn (£55bn) takeover of the video game company Activision Blizzard.

Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), insisted that the regulator was not deliberately making life difficult for tech companies and rejected claims from Activision boss Bobby Kotick that it had become a tool of US regulators.

She said: “I don’t find that we are operating, sort of broadly speaking, in a hostile environment.” The regulator’s chairman, Marcus Bokkerink, said that “turning a blind eye to anti-competitive mergers” would not boost economic confidence, in a direct retort to criticisms from the two US companies.

The CMA has been under fire since last month when it blocked Microsoft’s takeover of Activision, owner of the Call of Duty gaming franchise. It faced renewed pressure this week when Brussels regulators approved the deal.

Mr Bokkerink told MPS: “I would challenge the premise that there is an impact on international confidence in doing business in the UK, and that the best way that confidence is served is by turning a blind eye to anti-competitive mergers.” He said that businesses were most likely to be attracted to a country where they had “the ability to compete and the knowledge that you can compete unconstrained”.

Ms Cardell said the regulator had a constructive dialogue with tech companies. She rejected claims from Mr Kotick, who had alleged that the CMA “is being used as a tool by the [US]” to block deals.

Ms Cardell said: “We are not doing the bidding of other agencies. I believe that strong competition is a very positive signal for the UK’S reputation.”

Mr Kotick, who stands to make as much as $390m if Activision’s sale goes through, has said the CMA’S decision to block the deal shows that Britain is “clearly closed for business”.