SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 (Reuters) - Arguing for the government on Tuesday in its legal fight against Microsoft's (MSFT.O) $69 billion deal to buy game maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O), Harvard economist Robin Lee struggled at times to plainly demonstrate how the planned deal would hurt gamers.
Lee acknowledged that his analyses did not account for anything but full exclusivity of "Call of Duty" on Xbox and did not show what may occur if the game was available on Nintendo's (7974.T) Switch. If the deal goes through, Microsoft has pledged to provide the game to Switch for 10 years.
Microsoft attorney Beth Wilkinson pressed Lee in an effort to poke holes in his analysis of the deal, pointing out limitations of his economic modeling. At times the questioning grew testy, including when Wilkinson said forcefully, "Professor Lee, can you answer my question?" on a fine detail of his reports.
Appearing to grow frustrated with the difficulty in parsing Lee's answers, Wilkinson at one point mapped out his market share assumptions on a white board visible to the judge.
Microsoft attempts to pick apart US legal argument against deal to buy Activision | Reuters
