Britain's competition regulator said on Wednesday that it would not accept new remedies from Microsoft and Activision after it blocked their merger, but it would consider a restructured deal, which could require a fresh investigation.

Having blocked the $69 billion deal in April, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog has since said that it would consider new proposals for the deal after a U.S. court ruling that the takeover could go ahead.

"Whilst merging parties don't have the opportunity to put forward new remedies once a final report has been issued, they can choose to restructure a deal, which can lead to a new merger investigation," the CMA said on Wednesday.

"Microsoft and Activision have indicated that they are considering how the transaction might be modified, and the CMA is prepared to engage with them on this basis."

Reuters

This confuses me. If so, why would Microsoft make a submission to pause litigation

KnowinStuff Said:

Depends how short it will be I suppose.

If they can end it in Phase 1 then it could be a few months.

Others are saying it could be CMA trying to save face, they'll do a "fresh investigation" and say "oh we found this now!" and approve the deal with these new terms so it doesn't make their previous decision look like such a backtrack.

Looks like Microsoft will extend the merger agreement if they know about this.

On my phone and copying links from resetera posts is acting weird, but idas made a few posts saying this CMA situation is completely uncharted waters that a divestiture review and approval process would take a few weeks. Unclear what this means for the deal

Few weeks would be better...If this is just CMA saving face and pretending like they made a new investigation which doesn't contradict their old one then it could be short. Really don't think this is ending on Monday anymore though, Lol. Maybe Microsoft extends by a month or two.

But from what I've read, they don't have to technically extend, the merger agreement doesn't die on the 18th, it simply means that Activision can walk away at any point in time, for whatever reason, and still pocket the $3bn. So they could come to a gentleman's agreement I suppose to just ignore the termination date and wait it out a month or two.

I wonder what the logistics of closing in all jurisdictions but the UK would be, and just awaiting the completion of the second investigation

Every time we think it's over, something else comes to extend it, Lol. Few more weeks of this shit, maybe. Can't see this ending on the 18th. Microsoft and Activision will agree informally to ignore the termination date, Imo. If the CAT trial was September (?) and Microsoft agreed to pause it then surely Microsoft has assurances that this new "investigation" won't take longer than say, August? Lol.

And maybe have assurances that CMA will accept their new proposals because otherwise what is the point? CMA can save face by doing a "new" investigation and Microsoft only has to wait a few weeks (maybe). Everyone wins, Microsoft likely won't need to do a formal extension for only a few week delay and CMA can pretend like they didn't just backtrack on their original report.

If there's no angry tweets from Microsoft then they're probably aware and fine with it.

CNBC fucked up, no agreement was made, only an offer, Lol.

They can merge with pending CMA review, they just need to abide by an initial enforcement order from the CMA;

• The U.K. merger control regime allows acquirers the flexibility to close prior to completion of a CMA review, but acquirers should carefully consider the impact of an expansive CMA initial enforcement order (IEO) to hold separate the target business. The CMA may issue an IEO to ensure competition is protected and to preserve the CMA’s ability to order remedies or unwinding of the deal. Any material changes to the merging businesses will be subject to a strict consent process, and each party must submit regular compliance reports to the CMA. This can delay realization of the deal’s synergies and integration benefits.

I don't know if the agreement with ABK would need to be altered to use this but it seems a fairly trivial change IMO. They would not have all the benefits of the merger but at least the transaction will be completed, shareholders would get their payday and there'll be no risk of AKB just walking out with $3B.