After the CMA blocked Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, responses from the involved companies were not long in coming. Among those who regretted the verdict was the head of Activision Blizzard King, Bobby Kotick, who, still hurt by the resolution, has just insinuated that the FTC and the CMA collaborated to reach the verdict of the block.
Like pretty much everyone else, Kotick was surprised by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)'s final verdict to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, especially because the regulator originally protected Sony's "monopolistic market partition," but over time and thanks to evidence presented by Microsoft, "completely retracted."
"So, the way they interacted with us during the process is very different from what the resolution was," Kotick confessed on CNBC's Squawk Box program.
At one point on the program, one of the interviewers put forward the idea that some have that "the US government and regulators have effectively outsourced regulatory regime to Europe in this case" so that other agencies "don't have to take some of these decisions."
What caught attention is that Kotick responded by affirming that the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Lina Khan, met with the head of the CMA, Marcus Bokkerink, days before the European agency's verdict, and although he said he really doesn't know what happened at the meeting, Kotick insinuated that one of the topics they discussed could have been the treatment of Microsoft and Activision and that it somehow influenced the CMA's verdict to obtain the result they were expecting. He also took the opportunity to criticize both regulators, as "that's not the way they're supposed to be operating."
"Well, I was surprised to hear that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA had a meeting about a week and a half ago in Washington," Kotick said. "You know, legally you're not supposed to discuss ongoing litigation. I don't know what they did. But, you know, I think what you're seeing now is that the CMA is being used by the FTC to create these kinds of outcomes, and that's not the way they're supposed to be operating."
What do you think of Kotick's comments? Do you agree with the CMA's decision? Let us know in the comments.
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