Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Bid Faces UK Antitrust Probe

The Activision Blizzard Booth is shown on June 13, 2013, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. (AP)
The Activision Blizzard Booth is shown on June 13, 2013, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. (AP)
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Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Bid Faces UK Antitrust Probe

The Activision Blizzard Booth is shown on June 13, 2013, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. (AP)
The Activision Blizzard Booth is shown on June 13, 2013, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. (AP)

Microsoft’s acquisition of game publisher Activision Blizzard faces antitrust scrutiny in the UK, where competition regulators said Wednesday they’ve opened an initial inquiry into the $69 billion deal.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it has started looking into whether the tie-up would result “in a substantial lessening of competition” in the United Kingdom.

The US tech giant announced in January that it was buying Activision Blizzard in a deal that would make it a bigger video game company than Nintendo but raised questions about its anti-competitive effects.

Microsoft makes the Xbox gaming system while Activision has created or acquired popular video games including Guitar Hero and the World of Warcraft franchise.

Microsoft said it expected the scrutiny and thought it appropriate for regulators to take a closer look at the deal.

“We have been clear about how we plan to run our gaming business and why we believe the deal will benefit gamers, developers, and the industry,” Microsoft’s corporate vice president and general counsel, Liz Tanzi, said in a prepared statement.

“We’re committed to answering questions from regulators and ultimately believe a thorough review will help the deal close with broad confidence, and that it will be positive for competition.”

The UK watchdog will seek feedback on the acquisition from interested parties until July 20 and decide by Sept. 1 whether to escalate its investigation.

Tanzi said the company is confident the deal will close as expected in its 2023 fiscal year, which started in July.

The Competition and Markets Authority has a track record of scrutinizing, and sometimes preventing, big tech mergers and acquisitions.

The watchdog cleared Microsoft’s $16 billion deal to buy speech recognition company Nuance but blocked Facebook’s acquisition of the GIF-sharing platform Giphy and ordered the deal unwound, saying it hurt social media users and advertisers by stifling competition for animated images.



Microsoft Announces Another Mass Layoff, Thousands of Workers Affected

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
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Microsoft Announces Another Mass Layoff, Thousands of Workers Affected

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Microsoft is firing thousands of workers, its second mass layoff in months. The tech giant began sending out layoff notices Wednesday.

The company declined to say how many people would be laid off but said that it will comprise less than 4% of the workforce it had a year ago, according to The AP news.

Microsoft said the cuts will affect multiple teams around the world, including its sales division and its Xbox video game business.

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” it said in a statement.

Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. The company said Wednesday that its latest layoffs would cut close to 4% of that workforce, which would be about 9,000 people. But it has already had at least three layoffs this year.

Until now, at least, the biggest was in May, when Microsoft began laying off about 6,000 workers, nearly 3% of its global workforce and its largest job cuts in more than two years as the company spent heavily on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft also cut another 300 workers based out of its Redmond, Washington headquarters in June, on top of nearly 2,000 who lost their jobs in the Puget Sound region in May, according to notices it sent to Washington state employment officials.

The May layoffs were heavily focused on people in software engineering and product management roles.