Microsoft Activision Blizzard UK

Having been frustrated in its $69 billion dollar bid to acquire Activision Blizzard in the UK, Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, is scheduled to meet with UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this week to plead the company's case in person. This follows the EU's acquiescence to the deal, a matter to which the UK's regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, was quick to respond.

That's according to a new Bloomberg report (thanks, VGC), with Microsoft confirming that Smith will be in London, giving a scheduled talk on "the potential of AI and the need for thoughtful regulation of it.”

Further, private discussion on the matter of "the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard" will take place. The meeting could well prove to be a contentious one, as Hunt has previously publicly criticized the CMA for its decision, going so far as to state that the EU was the better place to do business.

Microsoft's threatening posture is designed to intimidate, as it makes it known that "extreme" options, such as withdrawing Activision Blizzard from the UK market or bypassing the UK entirely and forging ahead with the deal without it. As VGC points out, at least in theory, even if Activision were to shut up shop and move to another European country, a distributor would still be able to sell their games in the UK. So it's an option but a double-edged one, denying the company a massive market in the process.

While it's true that countries have lined up by the dozen to wave Microsoft's deal through, the United States is having none of it either, with the FTC moving to intercept. With the US having the most robust economy in the world (not to mention all of world history) and the UK occupying a comfortable seat in that particular Top 10 list, you start to understand just why it's so important Microsoft attempt to bring the famously defiant group of islands to heel.

What do you think of this latest salvo in the ongoing Acquisition Wars? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source bloomberg.com, via videogameschronicle.com]