Microsoft’s president has attacked the UK after it was blocked from buying US gaming firm Activision, saying the EU was a better place to start a business.
The move was “bad for Britain” and marked Microsoft’s “darkest day” in its four decades of working in the country, Brad Smith told the BBC.
The regulator hit back saying it had to do what’s best for people, “not merging firms with commercial interests”.
The UK’s move means the multi-billion dollar deal cannot go ahead globally.
Although US and EU regulators have yet to decide on whether to approve the deal, the UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said: “Activision is intertwined through different markets – it can’t be separated for the UK. So this decision blocks the deal from happening globally.”
If it had been approved, the $68.7bn (£55bn) deal would have been the gaming industry’s biggest ever takeover, and would have seen Microsoft get hold of massively popular games titles such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft.
Both Microsoft and Activision have said they will appeal against the CMA’s decision.
‘Clear message’
In an interview with the BBC’s Wake up to Money programme, Mr Smith said Microsoft was “very disappointed” with the CMA’s decision, “but more than that, unfortunately, I think it’s bad for Britain”.
“It does more than shake our confidence in the future of the opportunity to grow a technology business in Britain than we’ve ever confronted before,” he said.
“People are shocked, people are disappointed, and people’s confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken.
“There’s a clear message here – the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business than the United Kingdom.”
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Mr Smith was wrong to say the CMA’s decision was bad for Britain and that the EU was a better place to do business.
“Those sorts of claims are not borne out by the facts,” the spokesman said, adding that the UK games sector had doubled in size over the last 10 years.
The government would continue to engage with Microsoft, he said, but pointed out that the CMA was independent.
For the deal to work, it has to be approved by regulators in the UK, the US and the EU.
The UK is the first to announce its decision, but the US Federal Trade Commission last year began a legal challenge to block the takeover.
In March, EU regulators delayed their decision after Microsoft proposed concessions to get the deal over the line.
BBC