Sources Say If Activision And Microsoft Merger Fails, CEO Bobby Kotick Will Stay And Run The Company

According to sources that spoke with FOX Business, on the chance that the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition doesn't go through, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick “will absolutely remain at the gaming giant to run the company.” This is even after the CEO allegedly played a major role in maintaining the company’s toxic workplace culture.

These same sources also conveyed confidence that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will eventually realize that the acquisition will not hurt gamers, despite the CMA currently believing the exact opposite. In addition, it would seem that these sources also believe that “the only regulatory body that really matters” in this potential merger is the UK’s CMA.

Sources explained that the reason the CMA is the "only real potential roadblock" is that once the UK regulator makes a decision, unlike the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it offers companies no legal recourse such as a trial. "Microsoft and Activision would win any U.S. litigation merely on the facts," the sources said.

"In relation to gaming consoles," the CMA's provisional report began, "we provisionally found that Xbox and PlayStation compete closely with each other and that Activision’s Call of Duty (CoD) is important to the competitive offering of each. The evidence suggests that, after the Merger, Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make CoD exclusive to Xbox or available on Xbox on materially better terms than on PlayStation."

Microsoft responded to this–as they have many times–that they would grant “100% equal access to Call of Duty” across all major platforms, including PlayStation.

According to both Ampere Analysis and Statista, Sony’s PlayStation has a lead in the console market in both the UK and Europe, as well as in the US. Microsoft’s Xbox comes in second place followed by Nintendo’s Switch. This fact could also be used in Microsoft's defense if the time comes.

Sources also told FOX Business that both Kotick and a Microsoft executive, most likely Xbox CEO Phil Spencer or Microsoft’s President Brad Smith, will "be on a plane by late February" to make the case before the CMA’s April deadline.