Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is expected to be finalized before the summer, according to the plan presented in January 2022, when the deal was announced. Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen, pending approvals from at least three major competition authorities, namely the European Commission, the CMA in the UK and the FTC in the US.
Sony fought hard to stop the deal, but in a new interview with Fox Business, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, spoke about it, implying that the company does not seem to be as important to Sony as they want to believe. Among other things, he claims that Sony doesn’t seem interested in planning for the future:
“It’s funny, Sony doesn’t contact us. In fact, they don’t return our calls. And so…I think one of the things that surprises us is that this is the time we would normally talk about the future and new partnership opportunities, and they just haven’t returned our phone calls and so I don’t know if we’re as valuable as they may have represented regulators that we are .
Whether Activision Blizzard’s relationship with Sony has been damaged by the acquisition remains to be seen, but that’s something we’ll only notice if the deal doesn’t go through.