Blocked on "an industry forecast to be worth £1 billion in the UK by 2026"

A fucking £1bn industry, by 2026, Maybe! Lmfao.

I imagine all those Cloud companies that Microsoft made deals with are about to be quite annoyed.

They blocked the deal based on a tiny segment of the Gaming market. It's crazy.

I bought a book on Amazon Co UK yesterday, and I received a message saying it is now stuck at Customs and might need extra time and fees to receive it, due to Brexit 

So yeah, definitly

Well hope MS has a plan B because I’m not sure how many more Ls they’ve got left at this point. What’s next, StarF getting delayed to 2024?

Well...CMA famously hates Behavioural Remedies and don't like monitoring them, heck in the decision they say that they don't like monitoring them, Lol.

EC on the other hand widely accepts Behavioural Remedies and monitors them, an EC spokesperson talking about the ABK deal last year straight up said that they're likely accept Behavioural Remedies.

But a CMA block could theoretically encourage EC to block as well, in which case, it'd be finished because EC appeals can sometimes take years, Lol.

Damn, blocked because of cloud gaming of all things lol.

The CMA and the FTC both being against it could encourage that I think yes. I still think EC will most likely approve but I'm a lot less confident now. This is a huge blow for MS. ActivisionBlizzard has no doubt already been factored into their gaming plans for the years ahead. They will throw everything at trying to get this decision reversed because it's too big and important of a deal. It will take a lot more time though and they may not even succeed at the end of the appeal process.

Well I certainly wasn't expecting this.

Tbh, I don't think EC will care what FTC does, EC has for the most part been the most competent and steady regulator out there, they aren't constantly changing their agenda depending on who is President, Lol. And the CMA were under EC's authority until Brexit so the CMA's regulatory practices are more new and making a name for themselves.

The only reason a CMA decision could influence an EC one Imho is due to 'similar' markets and them working together in recent history (up until Brexit). Europe and America however are often digging at each other, Lol. So I don't think they'd be much influence, vastly different market, different politics and different attitudes.

He strikes again.