After UK regulators approved Microsoft's Activision deal in October, Brad Smith rows back on criticism of the UK, saying the CMA has been “tough and fair”
Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, has rowed back on criticism he made last year that the UK was “bad for business”.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft’s public posture changed after the CMA moved from blocking the transaction to approving a revised path. The reversal follows Brad Smith’s earlier description of the CMA decision as a damaging moment for Britain and an unusual reopened CMA consultation on the deal.
The dispute mattered because the CMA’s concern centered on competition in nascent cloud gaming, rather than the console-supply issue that had been provisionally eased earlier in the review. Smith’s new language recognizes the regulator’s eventual process as commercially workable, even after a high-profile clash.
First-order effects
- Microsoft replaces a confrontational public message with acceptance of the CMA’s scrutiny, reducing immediate friction between the company and its UK regulator.
- The CMA gains public validation that its intervention produced an approvable outcome rather than simply stopping the transaction.
Second-order effects
- Companies pursuing UK-sensitive technology deals have a clearer incentive to revise deal structures around CMA concerns rather than assume alignment with US or EU outcomes will be sufficient.
- Cloud-gaming rights and access commitments become a more salient transaction issue for platform buyers, game publishers, and prospective remedy partners.
Third-order effects
- If this pattern persists, the UK’s post-Brexit competition regime can remain an independent gatekeeper for global technology transactions while still steering parties toward restructurings rather than permanent prohibitions.
- Merger review may increasingly test control over emerging distribution layers, such as cloud gaming, before those markets have fully matured; whether that approach becomes routine will depend on future CMA cases.
The trend: Large technology mergers are increasingly being negotiated through market-specific remedies as regulators scrutinize control of emerging digital distribution channels.