Sec. Kahn is exactly right about Microsoft’s plans for power over the gaming industry.
As a game developer I applaud this decision. I am working on the Microsoft platforms, Microsoft Developer and C# but want the current deal from Mr. Softie. Not the crazy powerhungery deal that would otherwise be in the offing.
NYT Dealbook by Andrew Ross Sorkin. This is a column so no link.
snippet
The Biden administration has made reining in big tech companies a priority. Perhaps the strongest signal was the government’s pick for the top antitrust enforcers: Jonathan Kanter, head of the antitrust division at the Justice Department, and Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission.
Both are progressives who want to toughen enforcement and stretch antitrust doctrine. Under Khan, the F.T.C. has aggressively challenged acquisitions — a quick-strike tool in the antitrust arsenal to prevent the tech industry’s giants from getter bigger.
On Thursday, the agency filed suit to block Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard, which would be the largest technology deal in decades. And on the same day, it deployed a novel argument to stop a relatively tiny acquisition by Meta, arguing in a California court that the $400 million deal by Facebook’s parent company would harm future competition in the emerging market for virtual reality apps.