Things aren't looking great for the Microsoft-Activision merger. The EU has issued a statement of objections, the UK's CMA issued a provisional report finding the merger would stifle competition, and the FTC has outright sued to make sure the merger never happens in the US. It seems every major world regulator has a problem with Microsoft and Activision shacking up. It’s at this point that most C-suite executives of a major corporation would start hedging their bets, but Sony has started screening Bobby’s calls."It's funny, Sony's not on the phone to us," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "In fact, they're not returning our phone calls." In an interview with Fox Business, Kotick talked about the embattled merger and how normally he'd be on the phone with Sony executives talking about new business ventures. That's all changed because of the Microsoft merger.
"I think one of the things surprising to us is this is the time when ordinarily we'd be talking about the future and new opportunities together for partnership, and they just haven't been returning our phone calls," he said. "So I don't know that we're as valuable as maybe they've represented to the regulators that we are."
Perhaps Sony is feeling slightly betrayed that Activision Blizzard would want to tie the knot with Microsoft and not itself. Or perhaps Sony simply doesn't want to associate with a company that has settled lawsuits over toxic workplace complaints. Whatever the reason, it's definitely not business as usual over at Activision these days.
Things got even worse for the Microsoft-Activision deal earlier today when the CMA issued its provisional report finding the merger would be harmful for UK's games industry. It also found that Microsoft would very likely make Call of Duty an exclusive property and that almost a quarter of COD players on PlayStation would switch to Xbox if that happened.