Microsoft: President Brad Smith now says CMA was 'fair' in Activision Blizzard case

During an interview with the BBC's Radio 4 Today program, Brad Smith, the president of Microsoftstated that the CMAthe UK's antitrust body, has been “tough” but “fair” in his actions regarding the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Definitely kinder words compared to the hard line taken by Microsoft after the first rejection on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard received last April, when Smith had publicly criticized the actions of the CMA and declared that the company's confidence in the English market had been “seriously shaken”. He also added that “the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business” than the UK, which many interpreted as some sort of veiled threat.

As we know, in the end Microsoft and the English antitrust authority reached an agreement, with the former modifying the terms of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, selling the cloud streaming rights of the Santa Clara company's games to Ubisoft.

During his interview, Smith admitted that he might have chosen “slightly different words” to express his concerns about the CMA's actions.

“I learned a lot from a personal perspective,” Smith told the BBC. “I wouldn't necessarily take a step back from all the concerns I raised last April, but I would choose slightly different words to express my point of view.

“The CMA has held itself to a strict standard and I respect that. In my opinion it was tough and fair“, Smith added. “It pushed Microsoft to change the acquisition that we had proposed for Activision Blizzard, to spin off some rights that the CMA was concerned about regarding cloud gaming.”

The CMA's decisions will benefit everyone

“I believe the CMA has confirmed their position, but still created a pragmatic path for innovation and investment. I think this is good for everyone,” Smith added.

In this regard, the president of Microsoft also spoke about $2.5 billion invested by the company in the UK to build an AI infrastructure over the next three years, praising the UK Government's work in this area.

“The UK Government acted more boldly in 2023 than any other government in the world, committing £900 million to build this type of infrastructure for UK researchers,” Smith said.

“I think this is the result of a very good year. And it's a good reminder: sometimes it's more important to think about how the year ends than what happened on a particular day called April 26.”