Britain shoots down Microsoft’s $69B Activision deal

Key quotes:

> “How does a UK court block one American company from buying another American company?” asks a gamer in an online forum, where the chat is more often about high scores than competition law. “We had a war about this, and being independent, can do as we damn well please.”

> The CMA ruled that in cloud gaming, an emerging technology in which games are streamed Netflix-style, Microsoft plus Activision might become excessively dominant.

> The cloud-gaming market is indeed new and fast-changing, which makes it an odd place to wield the regulatory sledgehammer. Cloud-streaming subscriptions accounted for less than 1% of games spending last year, and it is far from certain that the technology will take off. Google shut down its Stadia cloud service in January and Amazon’s similar Luna platform is unpopular.

> Yet Britain’s new global clout may backfire. WhatsApp and others have threatened to leave the country rather than apply its encryption rules worldwide. Activision, whose share price fell by a tenth on the ruling, says it will reassess British plans, adding: “Global innovators large and small will take note that—despite all its rhetoric—the UK is clearly closed for business.”