On 8 March 2021, the European Commission unconditionally cleared Microsoft’s $7.5bn acquisition of ZeniMax (publisher of video games including the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series). The Commission considered and rejected horizontal theories of harm in games publishing and non-horizontal theories of harm arising from Microsoft’s Xbox console. CRA advised the Parties.
Response to the European Commission’s targeted consultation on revising its merger guidelines
Their recommendations include: Using simultaneous vGUPPIs to account for feedback effects between raising rivals’ costs (RRC) incentives and elimination of...