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As Microsoft's acquisition of the gaming giant, Activision, is wrapping up, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released an update on its on-going review regarding their standing on the acquisition.

On October 16th, the ACCC released an update on their official governmental website after an 8 month hiatus from their last update in February, 2023, stating that they will be discontinuing their review for the Microsoft/Activision acquisition given the outcomes and status of other international regulators about the situation at the current time, effectively marking the status of the review that started all the way back in June 20th, 2022 as "Completed".

After considering the status and outcomes of other international regulators’ reviews and changes to the transaction structure, including related agreements with third parties, the ACCC discontinued its review of the acquisition and does not intend to take any further action.

Adding this alongside the CMA's decisions, only the FTC's final hearing about the acquisition remains, as they still have the case issued as "Pending", with their final update being on October 11th, 2023.

Source

 

[KingVamp]

Well, at least they gave some pause, but all of this seem like a done deal.

 

[DragonMals]

Yep, it's official. Why the hell does MS want them tho? to fix their bad rep for treating their eemployers wrong? I forgot.

 

[NumberXIIIEdwin]

Please, just let it end already. At this point I’m so tired of seeing news about this merger.

Although if this merger means they’ll fix Overwatch 2 I’ll consider it a W even though I don’t own an Xbox and this is never gonna happen, is it?

 

[LeyendaV]

By the time this decision of the ACCC becomes effective, it will be almost 2 whole years since the beginning of this circus.

 

[ZeroFX]

Australia

 

[hippy dave]

By the time this decision of the ACCC becomes effective, it will be almost 2 whole years since the beginning of this circus.

You're not allowing for time zone differences /s

 

[Deleted member 194275]

I still wonder why this acquisition raised so much concern everywhere about competition.

I mean...

Xbox = Last place
Last place ≠ Monopoly

 

[HellGhast]

I still wonder why this acquisition raised so much concern everywhere about competition.

I mean...

Xbox = Last place
Last place ≠ Monopoly

Remember;
- NetScape Navigator?
- Word Perfect?
etc and others, all of whom Micro$oft condemned to an early grave all in the name of eliminating competition in order to establish a market stranglehold and monopoly to maximize profits.

If Micro$oft is able buy up all 3rd party game devs and studios, they will gladly do so in order to strangle $ony & Nintendont out of business.

That's the Micro$oft method of doing business.

 

[ChaosEternal]

Remember;
- NetScape Navigator?
- Word Perfect?
etc and others, all of whom Micro$oft condemned to an early grave all in the name of eliminating competition in order to establish a market stranglehold and monopoly to maximize profits.

If Micro$oft is able buy up all 3rd party game devs and studios, they will gladly do so in order to strangle $ony & Nintendont out of business.

That's the Micro$oft method of doing business.

I suppose that's why Internet Explorer has a stranglehold on internet browsing to this day. If only Netscape Navigator had survived, perhaps things would've been different.

 

[HellGhast]

I suppose that's why Internet Explorer has a stranglehold on internet browsing to this day. If only Netscape Navigator had survived, perhaps things would've been different.

Imagine still using crappy Internet Explorer today because Micro$oft's monopoly plans succeeded and there was no Firefox or Opera browsers...that's the reason we need anti-monopoly and anti-competition laws to protect us consumers from greedy mega-corporations of the likes of Micro$oft from trying to bleed us dry.

 

[Kioku]

Yep, it's official. Why the hell does MS want them tho? to fix their bad rep for treating their eemployers wrong? I forgot.

They aimed high to make up for Sony and Epic buying all the smaller companies over the past few years.

 

[Darth Meteos]

I suppose that's why Internet Explorer has a stranglehold on internet browsing to this day. If only Netscape Navigator had survived, perhaps things would've been different.

the amount of legal action that went down to prevent microsoft from doing something like preventing you from choosing another web browser at all would blow your mind
as it is, they still do their level best to make edge fused to the spine of their operating systems

 

[HellGhast]

the amount of legal action that went down to prevent microsoft from doing something like preventing you from choosing another web browser at all would blow your mind
as it is, they still do their level best to make edge fused to the spine of their operating systems

Yup...un-installing Edge is hard work but fun...and what's even more fun is when Edge re-installs itself a week later via windows update

 

[NyaakoXD]

Yep, it's official. Why the hell does MS want them tho? to fix their bad rep for treating their eemployers wrong? I forgot.

It's not hard to see. All about the potential profit and revenue over time. ActiBlizzard owns some of the most popular IPs like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, etc.

 

[DragonMals]

It's not hard to see. All about the potential profit and revenue over time. ActiBlizzard owns some of the most popular IPs like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, etc.

I thought that they have owned them all of this time....

 

[SylverReZ]

I thought that they have owned them all of this time....

Not until the merge of the two. Activision owns COD and Blizzard owns Diablo and WOW.

 

[HarveyHouston]

I'm thinking the same word. If you read my latest post about the acquisition, you'll know what I mean.

 

[Ampersound]

Did someone really think that Capitalism was gonna loose against Ethics?

 

[Lumstar]

Did someone really think that Capitalism was gonna loose against Ethics?

It's more likely they figured continuing to investigate the acquisition after it closed, wasn't going to achieve much.