原创 法商实验室

据纽约邮报报道，随着谷歌、亚马逊和Meta等竞争对手在华盛顿特区和布鲁塞尔因垄断受到广泛关注时，微软一直设法不引起监管机构的注意。但1月18日，微软宣布将以687亿美元收购游戏开发商动视暴雪的计划可能会改变这一局面。

如果交易完成，作为Xbox控制台的制造商，微软将拥有包括《使命召唤》、《魔兽世界》和《糖果粉碎传奇》等一些世界上最为流行的电子游戏的特许经营权。据科技界和华盛顿特区的内部人士称，这种在硬件和软件方面的集中必然会引起反垄断机构的注意。

微软的市值为2.3万亿美元，是仅次于苹果的全球第二大市值的公司，其业务范围包括从云计算到社交网络的各个领域。然而，即使美国和欧洲的反垄断主管部门近年来将目光投向了苹果、谷歌、亚马逊和Meta等互联网巨头，微软也在很大程度上避免了被监管机构调查的麻烦。此前极少被反垄断机构调查使微软在科技巨头中处于一个独特的地位。它足够大，可以拿出687亿美元的现金，但又足够低调，使这笔交易有机会通过监管机构审查。

据报道，如果交易失败，微软将向动视暴雪支付一笔高达30亿美元的"分手费"（“break-up fee” ），这笔费用远远高于此前此种规模的交易中通常约定的10亿美元金额。据业内人士称，“这是动视暴雪在对冲他们的赌注”。高额的分手费意味着微软和动视暴雪正在为之后可能面临的反垄断审查中遇到的麻烦做准备。

反垄断专家Matt Stoller将这笔交易与迪士尼收购皮克斯、漫威、卢卡斯影业和21世纪福克斯大部分股份的交易相提并论，他认为这些收购使迪士尼在娱乐业形成垄断。他表示：“微软正试图在游戏业重复此前迪士尼在电影业的行为”，“该笔收购应当被阻止”。

在周二的新闻发布会上，美国联邦贸易委员会和司法部拒绝就是否会对微软收购动视暴雪发起任何反垄断调查或诉讼发表评论。内部人士称，联邦贸易委员会和司法部中的任何一个机构都有可能采取措施来阻止该笔交易的进行。

（以上导读系法商实验室根据纽约邮报报道编辑整理，版权所有，不得侵权；如需转载，请后台联系，谢谢）

以下为报道原文：

Microsoft has managed to fly under the regulatory radar as big tech competitors like Google, Amazon and Meta take heat in Washington, D.C. and Brussels — but the company’s plan to acquire scandal-ridden game developer Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion could change everything.

If the deal closes, it would give the maker of the Xbox console control of some of the world’s most popular video game franchises, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. That level of concentration across both hardware and software is bound to attract attention from antitrust authorities, according to tech and D.C. insiders.

“This is going to be a soap opera,” Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives told The Post. “There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny.”

With a market capitalization of $2.3 trillion, Microsoft is the world’s second most valuable company after Apple, with business lines in everything from cloud computing to social networking. Yet even as competition authorities in the US and Europe have trained their sights on Apple, Google, Amazon and Meta in recent years, Microsoft has largely avoided any trouble.

That environment has put Microsoft in a unique position among tech giants: It’s big enough to pony up $68.7 billion in cash, but low-key enough to have a chance of getting the deal past regulators.

“Microsoft knows there’s only one company that can do a deal like this,” Ives said, giving the deal a 75% to 80% chance of going through.

That uncertainty appeared to be reflected in Activision-Blizzard’s stock price, which stood was hovering around $82 on Tuesday afternoon — well short of the $95 per share Microsoft wants to pay for the company.

The FTC and DOJ declined to comment on Tuesday during a press conference on Tuesday when asked about any potential investigations or lawsuits around the Microsoft-Activision deal. Insiders say either agency could potentially try to block the deal.

In another sign of potential trouble, the deal includes a $3 billion “break-up fee” that Microsoft will pay Activision-Blizzard if the deal fails to go through — a far higher fee than the $1 billion that would typically be included in a deal of this size, according to Ives.

“That’s Activision hedging their bets,” he said.

Matt Stoller, an antitrust expert and activist and former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, also said the high break-up fee means Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are bracing for trouble.

Stoller compared the deal to Disney’s acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and large parts of 21st Century Fox, which he argues have given the company a monopoly in the entertainment industry.

“Microsoft is trying to do to the gaming industry what Disney did to Hollywood,” Stoller told The Post. “It should be blocked.”

A potential antitrust case over the Activision deal would not be the first time Microsoft has been accused of building a monopoly.

In the late 1990s, the company was sued by the Justice Department over its practice of bundling the Windows Explorer browser with the Windows operating system for free. Microsoft settled the case in 2002 and agreed to make it easier for competitors to run their software on Windows devices.

来源：纽约邮报；记者：Theo Wayt