Activision’s games outside of the game arcade can convince CMA, says Michael Pachter

The UK’s Competition Authority (CMA) has decided to block Activision’s purchase of Blizzard King and Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities agrees with the UK’s assessment, but does not believe this is the end of the deal.

The controversial analyst touched on the decision taken by the Capital Markets Authority today, according to what she shares VGCyou think Microsoft can win the appeal or even announce new concessions to get approval to buy out the owner of Candy Crush.

“While a successful appeal of the CMA’s decision is a challenging task, for a number of reasons, we believe the authority is on the wrong side of the law with this decision, and we believe their concerns can be addressed.”

“Ultimately, the CMA’s decision is related to the belief that Microsoft will have pricing power given its dominance in the cloud gaming market. We believe the CMA’s belief is correct, and Microsoft failed to resolve this issue prior to the CMA’s decision.. ”

“However, we strongly believe that Microsoft is willing to compromise to keep the price at $15 per month plus inflation, and we believe the CMA would change its position if Microsoft made this offer.”

Pachter says Microsoft may have to leave Activision Blizzard King’s games out of UK Game Pass or create a UK Game Pass, monitored by the CMA and managed separately.

“We believe this will be enough for CMA to announce acceptance of the merger, provided Activision’s games are no longer available on Game Pass.. ”