He CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotickhas responded to CMA after the UK regulator blocked the sale of the company to Microsoft for 68.7 billion dollars. In an interview with CNBC, Kotick made various claims, one of which concerned an alleged meeting between the CMA and the FTC.
Kotick said he learned of a meeting between the head of the CMA and Lina Khan, the chairperson of the US Federal Trade Commission. FTC is suing Microsoft to try to stop the sale. Some believe that the FTC and the CMA they are working together.
A source of the FTC told Reuters that Khan and the CMA they did meet last week, but did not discuss the case. The guidelines of the FTC state that “Federal antitrust work often involves cooperating with international authorities around the world to promote sound competition policy approaches.”
“I was surprised to learn that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA They had a meeting a week and a half ago in Washington. Legally, they are not supposed to discuss active litigation. I don’t know if they did. But, you know, I think what you’re seeing now is that the CMA is being used as a tool by the FTC to be able to create these kinds of results, and it’s not the way they’re supposed to operate,” he said. Kotick.
A spokesman for the FTC told Reuters:
“The FTC absolutely did not collude with the CMA nor with any other international regulator in any review of proposed mergers. When a deal appears flagrantly anti-competitive, then independent antitrust regulators can simply make up their own minds.”
In the CNBC interview, Kotick He said regulators who opposed the sale are “taking dogmatic positions” and are not doing their job or serving their mission.
Kotick went on to say that the decision of the CMA surprised Activision Blizzard because until the decision was made on April 26, Kotick considered that the CMA it was “thoughtful and reasonable”.
“It seemed that the cloud solutions it offered Microsoft, which were very generous cloud solutions, were going to result in a favorable decision. So the way they interacted with us during the process is very different than what the outcome was,” he said.
Also in the interview Kotick He said it is imperative that the sale be allowed to go ahead so that American companies can better compete globally. He cited ByteDance, which owns TikTok, and Tencent, the parent company of League of Legends, as the “best companies in their industries in the world”. Consolidation is a way that companies like Activision Blizzard they can compete better, he said.
“In order for American companies to be able to compete effectively, we have to have consolidation and these kinds of mergers,” he said.
Of course, Kotick is no stranger to controversy. Many called for his resignation due to a series of allegations of workplace misconduct. In June 2022, the company published the results of its own internal investigation through its investor website. While the report acknowledged individual instances of harassment, it claimed there was “no evidence” that senior executives ignored harassment or withheld information from the board of directors.
Via: gamespot
note of author: It’s a little embarrassing, until you remember that it’s about Bobby Kotick, this guy was born for controversy and we know he’s making the courage of his life.
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