Microsoft probably offers Sony concessions – license for CoD to accelerate acquisition of Activision Blizzard

CoD Warzone 2: A simple trick lets you put on armor while running

Microsoft is still fighting to acquire Activision Blizzard. The US technology group is now ready to make initial concessions to its competitor Sony so that EU competition authorities can quickly approve the deal. The most important point here: A license agreement with Call of Duty that runs for 10 years.

As the news agency “Reuters” reports, Microsoft is probably planning the first concessions to Sony in the 69 billion deal with Activision Blizzard (via reuters.com).

In January 2022, Microsoft announced that it wanted to take over the CoD and WoW group. Since then, the world’s competition authorities have been fighting against the impression that Microsoft’s market power would become too great after the takeover of Activision Blizzard.

Biggest adversary: ​​competitor Sony. They regularly argue that the “Call of Duty” brand would give Microsoft too much control. Sony expresses the fear that many PlayStation players would be lost if CoD were to appear exclusively for PC and Xbox.

While the competition authorities of Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Serbia have already approved the deal, negotiations are continuing before the British authority “CMA” and the European body “ECA”. The deal is not over in the US either.

And apparently Microsoft is now ready to make the first concessions.

Co-op shooter with 94% positive reviews comes to Xbox Game Pass – “My Favorite Roguelite FPS”

Call of Duty: Contract to secure CoD 10 years on PlayStation

What are these concessions? Reuters reports with reference to people familiar with the case. Accordingly, Microsoft is planning a series of concessions to Sony.

The most important point is a license agreement. This should legally ensure that Call of Duty stays on the PlayStation for 10 years. Other points from the document are not mentioned.

See also  Return To Monkey Island Review

Why is Microsoft making concessions? Reuters says such “behavioural concessions” can help speed up the takeover process in the EU.

The EU authorities are currently preparing a list of competition concerns, the deadline for which is in January. The publication of this list could be accelerated by the new concessions.

Stephane Dionnet, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery, told Reuters: “Ultimately such a move could secure early clearance from the European Commission and subsequently be used by the parties before other antitrust authorities.”

Is that a strong concession? Compared to other competition procedures, this is only a small concession. Microsoft is offering what they’ve been repeating for months:

The Xbox boss is fed up with everyone thinking he has sinister plans – speaks clear words to CoD on PlayStation

In other processes, the acquiring companies have had to forego business in some cases or sell other parts of the business area.

The Handelsblatt (via handelsblatt.com). The German group Linde AG wanted to buy the US company Praxair. This would have created the world’s largest gas group.

Linde made strong concessions. It sold the entire gases business to a Japanese competitor and even exited the resulting joint venture. The EU competition authorities then approved the deal.

But that was not enough for the American authorities: They demanded further sales of the Linde business in the USA.

This also shows that different authorities set different standards – however, the composition of the market also plays an important role.

In the case of Linde and Praxair, the then number 2 and 3 in the gas market wanted to unite, and the 60 billion deal was considered controversial from the start in terms of competition law.

See also  Buy PS5: Replenishment at MediaMarkt and Saturn – new console on the way?

However, the distribution on the gaming market looks different. According to Statista, Microsoft ranks 4th with just over $3 billion in revenue and Activision Blizzard ranks 9th in Q1 2022 – between EA and Bandai Namco (via statista.com).

Together, the two companies would be just above Sony and advance to second place. Sony made just over $4.3 billion in the first quarter (excluding hardware sales).

By the way, the Chinese group Tencent is in first place by a long way. The first quarter of 2022 brought more than 8 billion dollars in sales: A gaming company is bigger than Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft – and their coat of arms is a damn penguin

Reference-mein-mmo.de