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VOICE ARCHIVE

Florian Mueller

@fosspatents
169 posts
2023-10-15
Sony Group's CEO (Jim Ryan's boss) already said a few months ago that operating those cloud gaming services is quite costly. This price increase here is in specific countries, but that may be because international currency conversion is a step function for psychological reasons.
2023-10-15 View on X
9to5Google

Nvidia plans to raise the price of its GeForce Now cloud gaming service in Canada and some European countries in November, citing “increased operational costs”

Q: Why is GFN pricing changing in Canada and Europe? John Callaham / Neowin : NVIDIA GeForce Now will raise subscription prices in Canada and Europe starting Nov. 1 Aaron Klotz / T...

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2023-10-14
Bobby Kotick's internal memo following CMA approval. I still expect closing to become known at 9 AM Eastern Time / 2 PM UK Time / 3 PM Central European Time. This does indicate that the European Commission does not object, and Microsoft's president also said UK was final hurdle.
2023-10-14 View on X
The Verge

A look at Microsoft's deal with Ubisoft, which now gets the cloud gaming rights for Call of Duty and current Activision games outside of the EU for 15 years

Microsoft's giant Activision Blizzard deal is complete, and it means Ubisoft has now obtained cloud streaming rights for Call of Duty …

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Bobby Kotick's internal memo following CMA approval. I still expect closing to become known at 9 AM Eastern Time / 2 PM UK Time / 3 PM Central European Time. This does indicate that the European Commission does not object, and Microsoft's president also said UK was final hurdle.
2023-10-14 View on X
Windows Central

The UK CMA approves Microsoft's $68.7B Activision Blizzard acquisition, after Microsoft reformed the deal to sell some Activision cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft

Who would have thought that a regulatory body that refused to let Meta buy Giphy would allow Microsoft to buy Activision? … Bluesky: Knoebel / @knoebel.bsky.social : The Cloud Deal...

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2023-10-13
Bobby Kotick's internal memo following CMA approval. I still expect closing to become known at 9 AM Eastern Time / 2 PM UK Time / 3 PM Central European Time. This does indicate that the European Commission does not object, and Microsoft's president also said UK was final hurdle.
2023-10-13 View on X
The Verge

Microsoft completes Activision Blizzard acquisition after a 20-month battle with regulators in the UK and US; Bobby Kotick will remain CEO until the end of 2023

The Verge exclusively reported last week that Microsoft was planning to close today, and now it's official.

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Bobby Kotick's internal memo following CMA approval. I still expect closing to become known at 9 AM Eastern Time / 2 PM UK Time / 3 PM Central European Time. This does indicate that the European Commission does not object, and Microsoft's president also said UK was final hurdle.
2023-10-13 View on X
Windows Central

The UK CMA approves Microsoft's ~$69B Activision acquisition, after Microsoft restructured the deal to sell some of Activision's cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft

The final roadblock has been removed.  —  What you need to know  — UK regulatory authority the CMA granted Microsoft approval to purchase Activision Blizzard.

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2023-10-12
State aid is a field of competition law like merger control. Now, the U.S. case is purely about transfer pricing. The way it works legally is that there is a range of what would be “arm's length” pricing (i.e. what total strangers might agree upon). 🧵2/2
2023-10-12 View on X
CNBC

Microsoft receives Notices of Proposed Adjustment from the IRS for an additional $28.9B tax payment; Microsoft plans to appeal, a process expected to take years

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella arrives at federal court on October 2, 2023 in Washington, DC.  Nadella is testifying …

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Vestager wanted to Apple to pay $13B to the Irish tax authority (which declined) and lost the first appeal, as I had predicted in several blog posts. But that was an overly ambitious attempt to make Ireland's low taxes a “state aid” issue. 🧵1/2
2023-10-12 View on X
CNBC

Microsoft receives Notices of Proposed Adjustment from the IRS for an additional $28.9B tax payment; Microsoft plans to appeal, a process expected to take years

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella arrives at federal court on October 2, 2023 in Washington, DC.  Nadella is testifying …

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2023-10-10
It's a good thing that they try to cover their bases and to do so pre-emptively. Better safe than sorry. The quality of those EU-commissioned studies varies greatly. Lately I've seen low-quality stuff that was funded by the EC's DG GROW. This one here is from DG CONNECT. 🧵2/2
2023-10-10 View on X
Reuters

Sources: EU regulators send out questionnaires asking customers and competitors whether Apple's iMessage and Microsoft's Bing should be regulated under the DMA

EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's (MSFT.O) users and rivals whether Bing should comply with new tough tech rules …

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The #EuropeanCommission will spend 300K € on a “study on mobile ecosystems” ( https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/ ...). They're forthright about it: this is done in advance of arguments they expect #Apple and #Google to raise once the EU starts to enforce the #DigitalMarketsAct. 🧵1/2
2023-10-10 View on X
Reuters

Sources: EU regulators send out questionnaires asking customers and competitors whether Apple's iMessage and Microsoft's Bing should be regulated under the DMA

EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's (MSFT.O) users and rivals whether Bing should comply with new tough tech rules …

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2023-10-06
According to the Verge, Friday the 13th may be the day the ABK deal is closed or the closing is announced: Microsoft eyes closing its giant Activision Blizzard deal next week https://www.theverge.com/... via @Verge I'm not superstitious. Hope you aren't either 😅 🧵1/3
2023-10-06 View on X
The Verge

Source: Microsoft plans to close its $68.7B Activision acquisition on October 13, with a final decision from UK's CMA allowing the deal expected next week

Microsoft is planning to finalize its $68.7 billion proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week.

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While Tom Warren and I have had disagreements unrelated to the real issues, he has great access to Microsoft-internal information and I have nothing negative to say about his work as a journalist. Last time he expected a CMA decision the next week, it came down sooner. 🧵2/3
2023-10-06 View on X
The Verge

Source: Microsoft plans to close its $68.7B Activision acquisition on October 13, with a final decision from UK's CMA allowing the deal expected next week

Microsoft is planning to finalize its $68.7 billion proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week.

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2023-09-21
If Apple had managed to replace Qualcomm's chips with its own, it could've tried to renegotiate patent license fees. Qualcomm has a “No License, No Chips” policy. Presumably Apple has now exercised the option to extend that license by a few more years.
2023-09-21 View on X
Wall Street Journal

Sources: Apple spent billions of dollars developing a modem chip for the new iPhones to cut ties with Qualcomm, but the chip was slow and prone to overheating

The company set out to design a silicon chip that would allow it to cut ties with Qualcomm, a longtime supplier and bitter foe

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2023-09-19
They knew that Nintendo's next console would offer a far higher level of performance, yet disputed that CoD could run on the next Switch and that Nintendo was part of the relevant market. They pursued the console theory of harm after virtually everyone else dropped it. 🧵 5/5
2023-09-19 View on X
The Verge

FTC v. Microsoft: new documents detail an Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, codenamed Brooklin, including a new controller and cylindrical, disc-less design

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features.

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They wanted Judge Corley and the appeals court to ignore relevant facts (10-yr agreements). They insulted human intelligence by asking Phil Spencer a question that incredibly equated the one-time cost of 3rd-party exclusives with an acquisition of a profitable company. 🧵3/5
2023-09-19 View on X
The Verge

FTC v. Microsoft: new documents detail an Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, codenamed Brooklin, including a new controller and cylindrical, disc-less design

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features.

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They purposely delayed their PI motion until shortly before a contractual deadline. They engaged in forum-shopping (Microsoft would have agreed to litigate the PI motion in D.C.). They asked Microsoft questions like they were Sony's negotiators. 🧵2/5
2023-09-19 View on X
The Verge

FTC v. Microsoft: new documents detail an Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, codenamed Brooklin, including a new controller and cylindrical, disc-less design

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features.

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Just so no one thinks I'm defending the FTC: The FTC's litigation conduct concerning Microsoft-ActivisionBlizzard has been absolutely outrageous and disingenuous from the get-go. 🧵1/5
2023-09-19 View on X
The Verge

FTC v. Microsoft: new documents detail an Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, codenamed Brooklin, including a new controller and cylindrical, disc-less design

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features.

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They argued that their own decisions should be treated as applicable case law when they sue companies in federal court. They disclosed confidential and sensitive business information. 🧵4/5
2023-09-19 View on X
The Verge

FTC v. Microsoft: new documents detail an Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, codenamed Brooklin, including a new controller and cylindrical, disc-less design

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features.

View original
2023-09-13
Pro-Google commentators of all sorts say the DOJ has no case. And that this is about helping competitors, not protecting the competitive process. That's wrong. The DOJ faces a high hurdle, but Google has ensured that competition is not just one click away, but billions of $$
2023-09-13 View on X
New York Times

A recap of the first day of US et al v. Google, as the DOJ argues that the company illegally protected its internet search monopoly via smartphone maker deals

In opening statements for the government's first monopoly trial of the modern internet era, Google defended itself and said people had many choices for online search.

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2023-09-11
Congratulations to @Qualcomm @cristianoamon on a new multi-year chipset deal with @Apple. Qualcomm is an innovation powerhouse. https://www.qualcomm.com/...
2023-09-11 View on X
Bloomberg

Qualcomm says Apple extended its modem deal for three more years, covering “smartphone launches in 2024, 2025, and 2026”; the prior deal was set to end in 2023

- Pact between the companies had been scheduled to end this year  — The iPhone maker has been trying to create its own components

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2023-08-23
At first sight I would say the glass is half-full, but it's a test for many people's patience. I will study the documents published by the CMA and Microsoft&Activision's announcement now, and will then do a Twitter (X) Space to explain what I think it all means.
2023-08-23 View on X
The Verge

To appease the UK, Microsoft restructures its Activision deal by committing to sell Activision's cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft; the UK CMA will now investigate

right now it's negligible. Ashley Armstrong / @aarmstrong_says : Big news on Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal : Microsoft files new deal with UK competition regulators for Call o...

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