From the lawyer covering the topic…
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The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced today a new global M&A division for effective merger control of foreign deals to review local and international acquisitions involving foreign companies.
They said that the MS/ABK deal is one of those acquisitions, recently requiring in-depth economic analysis and legal review.
The agency's M&A division is formed by only 8 officials
(the FTC had more than 10 people only for the MS/ABK case).
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The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced today a new global M&A division for effective merger control of foreign deals to review local and international acquisitions involving foreign companies.
They said that the MS/ABK deal is one of those acquisitions, recently requiring in-depth economic analysis and legal review.
The agency's M&A division is formed by only 8 officials
(the FTC had more than 10 people only for the MS/ABK case).
Japan approved?
game-news24.com
Xbox and Activision: the Japanese antitrust would approve the acquisition of Microsoft - Game News 24
We knew that the Japan Fair Trade Commission, which examined the the much debated case of the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft, had seen an
game-news24.com
Former Call of Duty Developer Says Team "Daydreamed" About Xbox Acquisition
Heading into 2023, one of the biggest questions in the video game industry revolves around [...]
It remains to be seen whether the purchase will be approved, but former Call of Duty developer Jack Burrows recently provided some insight into the impact it's already had at Treyarch. Speaking on the Kiwi Talkz podcast, the Black Ops Cold War level designer said that while the team did not let the deal impact day-to-day operations, many employees would "daydream" about Microsoft taking over, imagining how things might change as a result.
"Yeah, we would daydream about how it would affect the day-to-day. We would think about it and we would talk about it being like 'I wonder if this will change' or if you know 'this process won't be like that anymore,' or if we'll get more freedom to do whatever here and there or stuff like that," said Burrows.
There has been a lot of speculation that Microsoft could bring an end to Call of Duty's yearly release cycle, allowing more time between game releases. Burrows went on to point out that while it was fun to think about how things might change under Microsoft, he sees things mostly staying the same, should the deal go through, since the Call of Duty franchise "prints money."
Fit those who don’t want to read….
Since it may be a while for when we’ll hear from the other lawyer covering the merger…
From the lawyer covering the topic…
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The Administrative Law Judge shall hold a prehearing scheduling conference not later than ten (10) days after the Respondents file their answers. Unless otherwise directed by the Administrative Law Judge, the scheduling conference and further proceedings will take place at the Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room 532, Washington, D.C. 20580.
The prehearing is virtual (I think they use Zoom) and public. So, you can listen to it on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 3:00PM - 3:30PM.
These are some of questions that will be addressed by the parties:
- Their factual and legal theories;
- The current status of any pending motions;
- A schedule of proceedings that is consistent with the date of the evidentiary hearing set by the Commission;
- Steps taken to preserve evidence relevant to the issues raised by the claims and defenses;
- The scope of anticipated discovery, any limitations on discovery, and a proposed discovery plan, including the disclosure of electronically stored information;
- Issues that can be narrowed by agreement or by motion, suggestions to expedite the presentation of evidence at trial, and any request to bifurcate issues, claims or defenses;
- Other possible agreements or steps that may aid in the just and expeditious disposition of the proceeding and to avoid unnecessary cost.
There will be more prehearing conferences before August 2023.
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The Administrative Law Judge shall hold a prehearing scheduling conference not later than ten (10) days after the Respondents file their answers. Unless otherwise directed by the Administrative Law Judge, the scheduling conference and further proceedings will take place at the Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room 532, Washington, D.C. 20580.
The prehearing is virtual (I think they use Zoom) and public. So, you can listen to it on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 3:00PM - 3:30PM.
These are some of questions that will be addressed by the parties:
- Their factual and legal theories;
- The current status of any pending motions;
- A schedule of proceedings that is consistent with the date of the evidentiary hearing set by the Commission;
- Steps taken to preserve evidence relevant to the issues raised by the claims and defenses;
- The scope of anticipated discovery, any limitations on discovery, and a proposed discovery plan, including the disclosure of electronically stored information;
- Issues that can be narrowed by agreement or by motion, suggestions to expedite the presentation of evidence at trial, and any request to bifurcate issues, claims or defenses;
- Other possible agreements or steps that may aid in the just and expeditious disposition of the proceeding and to avoid unnecessary cost.
There will be more prehearing conferences before August 2023.
From the lawyer covering the topic…
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Next important dates:
- January 3rd 2023: prehearing conference with the FTC Administrative Law Judge. It's virtual and public.
- Early January 2023: provisional findings and remedies (if required) from the CMA. My guess would be between January 3rd and 17th.
- January 18th 2023: original outside date (when the parties expected the merger to be done). If MS quits before that date they have to pay a termination fee of $2,000,000,000; if they don’t, the outside date gets extended until April 18th 2023.
- Late January 2023: Statement of objections from the EC (unless MS can offer a convincing remedy package to avoid it).
- February 3rd 2023: decision from New Zealand.
- March 1st 2023: final report and remedies (if required) from the CMA.
- April 11th 2023: final decision from the EC (if MS didn’t close the deal in before in Europe).
- April 18th 2023: second extension of the original outside date. If MS quits before 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 - 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 before 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
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Next important dates:
- January 3rd 2023: prehearing conference with the FTC Administrative Law Judge. It's virtual and public.
- Early January 2023: provisional findings and remedies (if required) from the CMA. My guess would be between January 3rd and 17th.
- January 18th 2023: original outside date (when the parties expected the merger to be done). If MS quits before that date they have to pay a termination fee of $2,000,000,000; if they don’t, the outside date gets extended until April 18th 2023.
- Late January 2023: Statement of objections from the EC (unless MS can offer a convincing remedy package to avoid it).
- February 3rd 2023: decision from New Zealand.
- March 1st 2023: final report and remedies (if required) from the CMA.
- April 11th 2023: final decision from the EC (if MS didn’t close the deal in before in Europe).
- April 18th 2023: second extension of the original outside date. If MS quits before 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 - 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 before 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
If that’s the case then Tesla is a tech monopoly as well, they’re a tech company first that’s known for making cars (soon robots and maybe a cell phone) and they pretty much own that market in the west, primarily North America, the uk and most of Europe and Japan
70% is a monopoly according to FTC rules and they are well under that globally. I believe they are under 70% for the US now as well.
I concur. Let's approve this thing and move on. The FTC can eat a hot bowl of D's.
Deal-Making Thrived, Then Hit a Road Bump
Mergers and acquisitions activity plunged in the second half of 2022, but there are signs that it could pick up again next year.
Not all obstacles arose from economic factors. Government regulators have taken a tougher line against big deals, particularly in the United States. Both Lina Khan of the Federal Trade Commission and Jonathan Kanter at the Justice Department's antitrust division have sought to widen the grounds on which they could challenge transactions — even if they lose some cases along the way.
In some ways, that more interventionist approach catches up to the attitude of regulators in Britain and the European Union.
That shift in philosophy led the F.T.C. to sue to block Microsoft's takeover of Activision, a deal that under prevailing antitrust standards probably wouldn't be seen to substantially harm competition. But Ms. Khan has argued that approach ignores the effects of big mergers on issues like innovation, particularly as corporate titans become bigger.
Still, some deal-makers played down the risks that heightened antitrust scrutiny would have for boards and executives looking to do an acquisition, since most will still get done — it just might take longer.
"People will need to adjust their strategy," said Antonio Bavasso, a partner and antitrust specialist at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. "Are they willing to litigate to take their deals through?"
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Microsoft claims it has no idea when Call of Duty came out
Here, let me google that for you.
www.theverge.com
From someone else covering it…
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Yea this is nothing. It's a misunderstanding of the purpose of the statement. The paragraph that MS is responding to is this:
FTC said:
MS response has a few parts:
1) If FTC is quoting from documents, then don't ask us, just go look at the documents, judge.
2) MS doesn't have knowledge to judge "industry perceptions around the launch"
3) This isn't our company (yet). We're not the ones who control the typical release schedule, nor resources, nor budget. Don't ask us. Activision is gonna answer this too. Look there.
Here's Activision's reponse:
Activision said:
It's a fun gotcha, but it's neither a legal tactic nor a stupid response. It's just... this isn't about us. Moving on.