The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, the CMA, is blocking the Redmond-based tech giant from taking over Activision Blizzard King. And this time, Microsoft has opened its infinitely deep wallet.

No one can compete with Microsoft’s financial position because Windows and Office are used worldwide, and the company makes a lot of money. So it can afford to make a $68.7 billion takeover bid for Activision Blizzard King, but the CMA blocked it. However, The Telegraph reports that because of it, Microsoft has hired Daniel Beard KC to appeal to the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, the CAT, and it could happen within days!

Beard is not an anonymous lawyer. On several occasions, he has been able to overturn decisions made by the European Union. He represented Apple after the EU demanded the company pay €13 million in taxes because it claimed Ireland offered Apple illegal state aid. The company won the appeal. Beard also represented Intel last year in a case that overturned a ruling over a decade ago that the processor and video card maker should have paid a €1.1 billion fine for what the EU said was unfair dominance of the microchip market, a ruling Beard was able to overturn.

The European Union is also investigating the deal. It will publish the results of its investigation in two weeks at the latest, as it is nearing the end of the process (and is likely to accept Microsoft’s takeover bid). If the EU agrees, Microsoft will have to fight on two fronts; at the end of 2022, the US Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, filed an antitrust case against the tech company. That case could also take several months, so Microsoft may not even be able to take on Activision’s Blizzard King in 2023.

Microsoft may have put its money on the right horse by hiring Beard, but even that action does not guarantee success.

Source: VGC