Microsoft tests the limits of Britain's antitrust authority

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Microsoft shows the limit of its ability to kill mega-deals on its own, even if some agreed with its opposition to the U.S company's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is increasingly isolated over the Xbox maker's bid to buy the company behind «Call of Duty» after U.S. regulator, the FTC, failed to block it in court last week.

The FTC is considering its options, a source told Reuters on Monday, but its fight appears to be nearing the end. The European Union approved the deal in May, when it accepted commitments to license games to rival platforms. Activision announced an expansion in Barcelona the next month.

Microsoft had already lodged an appeal against the CMA's April block, but that was seen as a tough ask as the court that examines it — the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) — only reviews the process and not the merits of the case itself. At the same time, Microsoft offered a «detailed and complex» new proposal to the CMA, prompting the regulator to take the unprecedented step of reopening talks. The CAT agreed to adjourn the appeal on Monday.

The CMA said it was awaiting further Microsoft submissions on what had changed and how it would restructure the transaction. «We will then consider whether the proposals create a new merger situation and address the CMA's competition concerns,» a spokesperson said on Tuesday. «We will set out the appropriate process for that in due course.» A Microsoft spokesperson said: «As we've said before, we are considering how the transaction might be modified to address the CMA's concerns.» The regulator said on Friday it had already received a «detailed and complex» new proposal from Microsoft that claimed material changes in