Well that new article is going to go down well -_- . We will get the same users acting like they care about the staff thats been fired well attacking MS.
"How can MS do this they are spending 70 billion when they be getting them games anyways", "You have no right to feel painful phil no right!". Sony fires almost 40,000 people from 2014 to 2022 Response --> "Crickets" "FU MS FU Phil you should never fire anyone, you should keep paying them even if they are doing nothing at the company or under performing!!"

Oh man, makes me big sad for you knowing what’s to come in that game, some of the later levels take forever to finish. I have a love/hate relationship with that game 😬😅

I did it by myself and then someone wanted to play the game and had to do all twice but the second time it was much faster =p

The Coalition is still hiring a decent amount, they currently have 12 open positions.

I think excluding the huge hit to 343i, I haven't really seen more than ~10 in total for the rest of XGS.

Starfield marketing in stores now.

For a second there, I thought it was marketing Hogwarts Legacy as day one on GP, and I was sitting there like...huh? How? lol

Yah it got me confused too lol

We didn't have a lot of recaps for the first anniversary, but this one from CNBC was interesing:

This MSFT-ATVI Deal is an Effort By The FTC to Reset Merger Policy, Says Former Commissioner

It included a new interview with William Kovacic, former FTC Commissioner, about the case.

We also got a report from Benchmark (a research, sale, trading and investment banking firm) saying that the market is pricing in an 18% probability of deal success :s

On the other hand, I updated the next important dates (I mainly added the motion for the gamer's lawsuit):

- Late January 2023: Statement of objections from the EC.

- Late January /Early February 2023: Provisional findings and remedies (if required) from the CMA.

- February 3rd 2023: Decision from New Zealand.

- March 23rd 2023: Motion for a preliminary injunction on the gamers' lawsuit.

- April 11th 2023: Final decision from the EC.

- April 18th 2023: Second extension of the original outside date. If MS quits by that date they have to pay a termination fee of $2,500,000,000; if they don’t, the outside date gets extended until July 18th 2023.

- April 26th 2023: Final report and remedies (if required) from the CMA.

- April - May 2023: Decision from the SAMR in China.

- July 18th 2023: The end of the second extension and final outside date in the merger agreement. If MS quits by that date they have to pay a termination fee of $3,000,000,000; if they don’t, they’ll have to renegotiate the outside date with ABK.

- August 2nd 2023: Beginning of the FTC in-house trial.

- Early 2024: Decision from the FTC administrative law judge.

- Anything beyond that: Unknown

Source: Idas.

Haha. Damn...The market is pricing in an 18% probability of deal success.

Anyway. Idas answered a few other questions as well.

- Only the CMA posts potential remedies to their concerns if they don't block the deal, whereas the EC shares their concerns but the party (I.E. Microsoft) have to offer remedies which are acceptable for the EC. So EC is basically "Do the work yourself, bring us your best offer" and CMA is basically "Here's what you have to do"

- His "crazy gut feeling" is that EC will approve it with behavioural remedies but the CMA will approve it without any remedies.

- Thinks CMA's provisional findings will come after the SO from the EC.

- Difference between informal and formal talks, informal talks focus on the what, formal talks focus on the when/how. Microsoft should have a good idea of what they could address of the concerns from the EC during the informal talks.

- SO's are usually confidential and only between the two parties, in this case, Microsoft and the EC, but we'll maybe have some stuff leaked through the press.

Sidenote: FTC vs Meta will be decided before the end of this month as well, Lol.