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BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - Microsoft's (MSFT.O) readiness to offer licensing deals to rivals is likely to address EU antitrust concerns over its $69 billion acquisition of Activision (ATVI.O) without the need for asset sales, three people familiar with the matter said.
The European Commission is not expected to demand that Microsoft sell assets to win its approval, the people said.
(Bloomberg) Microsoft also said it’s willing to pay a third-party monitor to oversee their compliance, the people said, a measure designed to relieve the CMA from having to devote resources to make sure the tech giant follows through on its promises.https://t.co/9Ns9uQCbQl pic.twitter.com/gQ5U0Wu8cj
— Idle Sloth💙💛 (@IdleSloth84_) March 2, 2023
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This is what they did to get Linkedin through.
So now this should settle one of CMA's concerns with behavioural remedies, Microsoft is doing a lot to get this deal through.
Interesting developments. CMA is looking now like the odd one out, with the other approvals and EU/China expected to approve which will also cause others to fall in line. The FTC is irrelevant, they have zero case to block the deal and FTC doesn't even technically "approve" deals by the law.
If EC is happy with the exact same contractual remedies being offered to the CMA and others will do the work for the CMA then that may sway CMA a little towards behavioural remedies being offered.
Divestment isn't really a viable option either, there would be too few who would be willing to and even have the money to acquire Activision who also won't run into regulatory issues and the negatives would likely outweigh the positives at this stage.
