Faced with antitrust investigation, Microsoft will not change its plan to acquire Blizzard

·  Global antitrust litigation has been updated and iterated, and layers of new regulations have demonstrated the digital economy of antitrust. Among them, maintaining fair market competition and opposing unfair competition has become a global anti-monopoly topic. At the beginning of this year came the news that the US FTC will conduct Microsoft's acquisition of "World of Warcraft" developer - Activision Blizzard's antitrust investigation.

·  The U.S. regulator, the Federal Trade Commission, is set to file a potential antitrust lawsuit. Microsoft has expressed its willingness to go to court for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but is unwilling to provide remedies to the United States. At that time, some analysts analyzed that after Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, it would become the third largest game company. Therefore, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will undoubtedly be closely scrutinized horizontally and vertically by antitrust regulators around the world (mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States ). .

· an in-depth antitrust investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and Microsoft's plan to acquire Blizzard failed to pass the first round of antitrust review by the British CMA. British investigators worry that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard will reduce competition. The British Competition and Markets Agency (CMA) stated that the regulator will study whether Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has hurt market competition in terms of raising prices or reducing consumer choice; if Microsoft (MSFT) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) ) did not provide a competitive commitment , and has been uncompromising for a long time. The second phase of investigation will be launched, and Microsoft has not provided remedial measures so far.

·  Due to the strict antitrust scrutiny, Blizzard insiders worried that Microsoft would screw up the acquisition . And Activision Blizzard executives claimed: being acquired by Microsoft is beneficial to the industry and players. It is reported that Microsoft still believes that the acquisition can be completed by June next year under this scenario.

Sony, on the other hand, has a more positive attitude in the face of antitrust investigations, saying that it welcomes further investigation by British regulators into Xbox's acquisition of Activision. It is also said that Sony and Microsoft have played weak in the debate and defended themselves in the face of the British CMA.