In case the Xbox Activision-Blizzard acquisition was not already eventful of its own, now the controversial Bobby Kotick also intervenes, threatening the institution regulator of United Kingdom.
The head of the company that publishes Call of Duty, with Modern Warfare 2 always available on Amazon at the best price, was for a long period in the news.
Bobby Kotick is also strongly linked to Microsoft, because the Redmond house approached him to start the acquisition right after the series of scandals that involved him.
Among which there was also an attempt to buy large specialized press outlets, with the is to manipulate the perception of Activision Blizzard during its turbulent management.
After a long silence, Bobby Kotick returns to have his say about the epic that is involving Microsoft and Activision Blizzard in the well-known acquisition.
And, as reported by VGC, it does it with veiled threats to the British regulator.
The CEO of Activision Blizzard said that blocking the acquisition by Microsoft would be a dead blow to the British government’s ambition to become a technological superpower.
In the week that the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) publishes its interim findings on the deal, Kotick gives his opinion in a decidedly passive-aggressive manner:
“If a deal like this can’t go through, it won’t be Silicon Valley, it will be Death Valley.”
The statement was aired on CNBC, on the same day that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the creation of a new autonomous government department for science , innovation and technology.
A declaration that comes at a time of real stalemate, given that the period that the CMA has taken to analyze the case is about to end.
Which echoes the words of Satya Nadella, a few months ago, addressed to all regulatory bodies in invoking the right to compete.
