Brazil approves acquisition of Activision
Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard is a concern for competition authorities around the world. These include the big ones, such as the US and EU antitrust authorities, but also smaller authorities. And here was good news for Microsoft, as Brazil waved the deal through.
Negotiations on the takeover of the well-known game publisher went on for a long time in Brazil. This is true in other countries as well, but the case enjoyed so much attention in South America, or rather here because the documents that Microsoft and Sony submitted to the competent court there had a lot of interesting information to offer.
Now, however, the Brazilian competition watchdogs have completed their work and come to a clear conclusion: Microsoft may take over Activision Blizzard, and that without conditions. The reasoning is quite interesting.
Consumers First
Because it is explained that the task of the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econmica (CADE) is to protect the rights of Brazilian consumers in terms of competition – and not the economic interests of companies. The competition authority writes: “It is important to emphasize that the main objective of CADE’s activities is the protection of competition as a means of promoting the well-being of Brazilian consumers and not the defense of the special interests of individual competitors.”
In other words, the takeover is good for consumers, whether Sony is happy with it doesn’t matter. The authority also addresses in detail a possible exclusivity of Call of Duty and also points out that exclusive content is very important for the game providers and the console market (via VGC). But: They are also the main factors why PlayStation and Nintendo are the market leaders in this area. CADE: Nintendo does not currently rely on Activision Blizzard content to compete in the market.
Sony, on the other hand, has several requirements – the strength of being the world’s leading brand for more than 20 years, extensive experience in the industry, the largest user base, the largest number of installed consoles, a robust catalog of exclusive games, multi-publisher partnerships, brand loyal consumers, etc. – which should help keep PlayStation competitive in a possible post-acquisition scenario, even if access to Activision Blizzard content is lost.
Brazil is the second country to approve the acquisition after Saudi Arabia waved the deal through. Next up is the EU announcement, which will be in early November. However, it is quite questionable whether this will also take place without conditions.
Research Snipers is currently covering all technology news including Google, Apple, Android, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung News, and More. Research Snipers has decade of experience in breaking technology news, covering latest trends in tech news, and recent developments.
