The billion-dollar Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal has been dragging on for months, hampered by anti-trust investigations and market watchdog scrutiny. Despite the fact that the merger has been far from smooth, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is reportedly 'confident' that it will be completed soon.
According to recent developments, the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a deeper investigation into the aforementioned deal, having begun the probe in July. As a nod to the fact, the UK watchdog warns that the proposed deal could harm a few competitors in the video game industry, resulting in a major market disparity.
Microsoft Confident of Winning Activision Deal Regulatory Approval
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is confident that the software giant will be granted regulatory approval despite the ongoing competition investigation. The top Microsoft executive told the news agency that the $69 billion merger probe is essentially a sine qua non in any massive corporate deal and that they hope to finalize the deal soon.
The previously stated agreement has the potential to elevate Microsoft to new heights as it enters the gaming industry. The agreement allows Microsoft to acquire a number of major gaming titles, which have the potential to make Microsoft a dominant force in the industry. One of which is "Call of Duty," which has been mentioned several times in the UK CMA probe. Even without the massive deal, Microsoft is currently ranked 14 in this year's Fortune 500.
The recent economic downturn that impacted many industries also affected the American tech corporation. A report from The Street tells us that Microsoft stock was down more than 31.5% from its all-time high. That's the worst decline in more than a decade. The tech giant, though, remains a robust force in the market after recording a surprising 38% increase in profits last year.
"The constraints are real-inflation is definitely all around us," the Microsoft CEO said in a Bloomberg TV interview. "I always go back to the point that in an uncertain time, in an inflationary time, the software is the deflationary force," Nadella added.
The company's hardware teams recently dealt with a global chip crisis that resulted in a shortage of Xbox game consoles, but they also celebrated the release of new laptops and tablet devices. With inflation in place, Microsoft may be looking for additional ways to mitigate its impact. It can be remembered that the computer market in the United States declined last year because of pandemic-related supply issues.
Microsoft Eyes a Hiring Freeze to Mitigate Inflation Impact
Microsoft, like other large corporations, is reportedly cutting jobs and implementing hiring freezes left and right in order to weather a weakening economy. According to Bloomberg News, Microsoft cut less than 1% of its 180,000-person workforce in July, affecting areas such as consulting and service solutions, but said it started planning to increase staff numbers by the end of the fiscal year.
