In the wake of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month blocking the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard deal from going ahead, Microsoft has reportedly acquired the services of lawyer Daniel Beard KC reports The Telegraph (via Yahoo Finance).
The company plans to lodge an appeal in a matter of days. Beard is reportedly a leading competition barrister with a reputation for overturning large-scale decisions made by EU regulators.
Beard famously won an appeal for Apple after the EU demanded the company pay €13 billion in taxes. Last year he successfully overturned a decade-old €1.1 billion fine against Intel after the EU claimed it was unfairly dominating the microchip market.
Microsoft hopes Beard will be similarly successful in appealing the UK CMA’s decision to block Xbox’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The CMA prevented the deal from going ahead last month, citing concerns over its effect on competition in the cloud gaming market sector.
Meanwhile, across the English Channel, EU regulators are reportedly investigating the acquisition and are said to be expected to make its decision within the next two weeks.
The European Commission is expected to approve the takeover upon certain conditions, such as Microsoft committing to keep games such as “Call of Duty” available on other consoles.
Microsoft essentially needs approval from the U.S., U.K. and E.U. regulators to proceed with the deal.
