"According to Hoeg they can’t get concessions unless they prep a lawsuit and tell Microsoft they’re going to sue."
Third option, it could be an attempt to get concessions out of Microsoft.
FTC has been on a losing streak lately so if it were just them, I wouldn't be worried at all, I am worried about what it would mean for CMA though, with how awful their Phase 1 was conducted, one of the large regulatory bodies blocking could encourage them to do the same and CMA has way less oversight than FTC which makes challenging it near impossible.
Another issue is that if the court case takes too long, I.E. If it goes beyond July 2023 then the acquisition has to be renegotiated or break up and both sides have to agree to that, Activision-Blizzard are in a brilliant spot right now so they'll definitely ask for more from Microsoft, likely a lot more and it will then depend on if Microsoft wants to pay that much extra.
"Google is also an opponent of the deal, according to two of the people with knowledge of the matter. The company has argued that Microsoft has purposely degraded the quality of its Game Pass subscription service when used with Google's Chrome operating system and owning Activision would further its incentive to do so, ultimately steering hardware sales towards Microsoft and away from Google, the people said."
I see Google has pulled out the paranoid delusions, Lol. Maybe it's because xCloud is a WIP? Edge uses Chromium you idiots and Microsoft goes out their way to optimise xCloud for fucking Linux. What benefit is there for them to purposely degrade xCloud on Chromium systems?
Essay Pro