Britain’s competition regulator, the staunchest opponent of Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard, flat out blocked the deal in April.
It appears the U.K. Competitions and Markets Authority may have now had a change of heart.
After a U.S. judge on Tuesday denied the the Federal Trade Commission’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop Microsoft from completing its purchase of Activision Blizzard, the U.K. CMA said it was ready to go back to the negotiations table with the Redmond giant.
But what assurances can Microsoft offer to the CMA, after previous attempts at concessions have failed?
Why the CMA blocked the Microsoft-Activision deal
The U.K. CMA efficiently blocked the acquisition in April, saying the deal raises competition concerns in the nascent cloud gaming market. Like other regulators, the CMA is concerned that Microsoft could take Activision games and make them exclusive to its own platforms.
Cloud gaming is a technology that enables gamers to access games via remote servers — effectively streaming a game like you would a movie on Netflix. The technology is still in its infancy, but Microsoft is betting big on it becoming a mainstream way of playing games.
“Allowing Microsoft to take such a strong position in the cloud gaming market just as it begins to grow rapidly would risk undermining the innovation that is crucial to the development of these opportunities,” the CMA said in April.
Why did it change course?
The CMA had been aggressively pushing for Microsoft not to purchase Activision — and its decision to relax its stance has come as a surprise to many.
In its statement, the CMA suggested it would open up negotiations with Microsoft to consider proposals to resolve the dispute.
An Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game is inserted into the Microsoft’s Xbox One video game console arranged in Denver, Colorado, on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022.
Michael Ciaglo | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“We stand ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction in a way that would address the concerns set out in our Final Report,” a CMA spokesperson told CNBC via email on Tuesday.
“In order to be able to prioritise work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and all parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect.”
The regulator could have gone ahead and progressed with legal action in the courts. However, this would have been a lengthy and costly process, and may have been particularly bruising for the watchdog, if it were to lose the case.
Alex Haffner, a competition lawyer at law firm Fladgate, told CNBC that the setback to the FTC essentially left the CMA “exposed to being the only regulator that has actually blocked the deal.”
“Why did they do this? You might call it face saving, you might also call it pragmatic, given the circumstances,” he said.
“It’s been backed into a corner and publicly said it’s announced a stay of the appeal to negotiate with Microsoft,” Haffner added. “You add that, together with the political machinations of all of the heat the CMA’s got. It’s pretty nailed on [that] it’s going to negotiate some kind of settlement with the parties.”
What happens next?
The CMA, Microsoft and Activision now look set to hash out a possible resolution to the regulator’s concerns to get a deal over the line.
Microsoft could seek to provide further commitments to the regulator. It’s not yet clear at this stage what those pledges could look like, but Haffner said they would need to be “proportionate to the concerns raised.”
“There will be an intense period of negotiations on both sides they need to get it done quickly,” Haffner told CNBC. “We’ll get it done in a week or so, I’d say.”
Microsoft has a July 18 deadline to complete the deal.
Microsoft has already offered concessions to the U.K. regulator which were rejected.
One of the remedies involves Microsoft making certain games available on other platforms for a defined period of time. For example, Microsoft said in February that it would bring Xbox PC games to Nvidia’s cloud gaming service. The company also signed a 10-year deal with rival Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Japanese firm’s platforms the same day as the game would become available on the Xbox.
To the European Union regulators which approved the deal in May, Microsoft said it would offer royalty-free licenses to cloud gaming platforms to stream Activision games, if a consumer has purchased them.
But the CMA has rejected similar concessions on the basis that they would be difficult to monitor and enforce, and the rapidly-fluctuating nature of the nascent cloud gaming sector means such as a remedy may not take into account changes in the cloud market.
So Microsoft will need to take another try at a licensing concession.
Will Microsoft have to divest some business?
Prior to softening its stance in its April ruling, the CMA in February gave a notice of possible solutions to Microsoft. One of those was for Microsoft to sell its business associated with the popular Call of Duty game. Other remedies included a divestiture of some of the Activision Blizzard business.
Microsoft President Brad Smith told CNBC in February that he didn’t see a “feasible path” to sell off Call of Duty.
But a divestiture of some sort could be on the cards, according to Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities. Ives said in a note on Wednesday that Microsoft could carve out its Game Pass subscription service in the U.K. to satisfy the CMA.
Game Pass is Microsoft’s subscription service on the Xbox console and PC, which gives users access to hundreds of games.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Nov. 10, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. The reopening trade
Investors yesterday were pleased with the Senate’s approval of an agreement that could end the government shutdown. The three major indexes all surged in Monday’s session, regaining ground after posting sizable losses last week.
Here’s what to know:
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw its biggest one-day rally since May, signaling traders’ shift back into the artificial intelligence trade. Microsoft snapped its longest losing streak since 2011.
Bitcoin climbed back above the $105,000 mark, another sign of the deal boosting animal spirits in the market.
The Senate officially passed the bill in another vote last night, sending it to the House of Representatives.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker Mike Johnson did not commit to holding a December vote on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies — one of the deal’s key guarantees for Democrats. Here’s what Democrats are, and aren’t, getting in the deal.
Johnson said members of his chamber should return to Washington, D.C., to vote on the deal as soon as possible. Members of Congress were told that votes in the House could begin by 4 p.m. ET tomorrow.
When asked if he supports the agreement, President Donald Trump on Monday said “I would say so.”
The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on January 22, 2025.
Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty Images
Japanese firm SoftBank said Tuesday that it sold all of its stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion. Nvidia shares slipped nearly 2% in premarket trading this morning.
The sale comes as SoftBank focuses its attention on OpenAI, the buzzy startup behind ChatGPT. But SoftBank is still involved with Nvidia through other artificial intelligence ventures that use the chipmaker’s technology, such as the Stargate project.
SoftBank also dumped some of its T-Mobile position for $9.17 billion.
3. Paramount+, or Paramount-?
The Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California, US, on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025.
The CBS parent said it’s aiming to trim an additional $1 billion from its business. As CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo notes, that’s on top of the $2 billion in savings the company outlined when its merger completed in August. Paramount also announced its latest round of layoffs, tied to its divestiture of parts of its South American business, impacting about 1,600 employees.
The entertainment company said it would hike prices for its Paramount+ streaming service in the first quarter of 2026.
4. Air travel headwinds
American Airlines planes sit at gates at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) on November 9, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Grant Baldwin | Getty Images
Air travel remains under pressure as the government shutdown strains airport infrastructure. Just over 6% of U.S. flights were cancelled yesterday, according to aviation data firm Cirium.
Air traffic controllers, who are required to work during the shutdown, missed their second full paycheck yesterday. Trump said he would recommend a $10,000 bonus for controllers who don’t take off time during the shutdown, while threatening to dock pay for those who don’t go to work.
Flexjet global CEO Andrew Collins told CNBC’s Leslie Josephs that demand for flights on private planes has jumped sharply in recent days. But the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday limited private flights at 12 major U.S. airports amid the staffing challenges.
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5. A holiday tradition
Warren Buffett and Greg Abel walkthrough the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.
But Buffett said he would hold onto a “significant amount” of Class A shares so investors can build confidence in his successor, Greg Abel. Buffett said it “shouldn’t take long” for shareholders to warm up to Abel, who will take over as chief executive next year.
Buffett said his letter will become a Thanksgiving tradition and that Abel will take over writing Berkshire’s annual shareholder letters. In typical fashion for the investing titan, the Oracle of Omaha used his note on Monday to dole out some life advice, too.
The Daily Dividend
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo, Sean Conlon, Dan Mangan, Kevin Breuninger, Leslie Josephs, Kate Rogers, Yun Li, John Melloy, Ryan Ermey and Macklin Fishman contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.
Across the tech sector this earnings season, companies told Wall Street to get ready for ramped up spending as the artificial intelligence boom accelerates.
But while investors largely rewarded the megacaps for their boosted capital expenditure forecasts, or just shrugged off their guidance, companies outside the trillion-dollar club are getting punished.
DoorDash, Duolingo and Roblox all saw their stock prices suffer double-digit slumps after the companies said spending is on the incline, raising concerns about future profitability. Unlike the tech giants, which are promising hefty buildouts to meet soaring demand for AI services and workloads, smaller companies are getting viewed more skeptically, with analysts uncertain about whether their bets will pay off and result in substantial new revenue opportunities.
“Investors don’t like investment cycles,” Evercore ISI’s Mark Mahaney told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” last week. That’s what happened, he said, with “all those companies that went into and out of this earnings cycle and negatively surprised the market by saying, ‘We really want to lean into investments first.'”
DoorDash’s stock sank 17% on Thursday, its worst drop in the food delivery platform’s five years as a public company. In its third-quarter earnings report, DoorDash said it plans to shell out “several hundred million dollars” on new products and technology next year.
“We wish there was a way to grow a baby into an adult without investment, or to see the baby grow into an adult overnight, but we do not believe this is how life or business works,” the company wrote in its earnings release.
CEO Tony Xu said on the earnings call that the company’s investment track record signals “some success in repeating this playbook, and we’re doing this now for future growth.”
Analysts see it differently.
“Looking ahead, we maintain our Hold rating as we see limited multiple expansion opportunity until there is greater clarity surrounding how long investments could weigh on margins,” wrote analysts at Gordon Haskett.
A DoorDash spokesperson said in a statement that the company is “fortunate to have an increasingly successful core business” and that it takes a “disciplined investment approach” to new projects.
‘Monetization and user growth at odds’
Duolingo also had its worst day as a public company on Thursday, despite beating on revenue and bookings in its third-quarter earnings report.
The stock lost a quarter of its value and is now down 41% for the year, after Duolingo said it’s prioritizing finding new users. The company has been pouring money into AI features, such as an interactive video call option, as it tries to win over paying subscribers.
“There are experiments that put monetization and user growth at odds, and part of my job has been, always, arbitrating between these two,” CEO Luis von Ahn told CNBC after the earnings report. He said the company is shifting the “trade off to be much more towards user growth.”
On the earnings call, von Ahn said that it’s “going to take some time for us to see the results, financial results, over the long-term investments that we’re doing.”
After the report, analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded the stock to the equivalent of hold from buy, citing concerns that increased investments will weigh on near-term bookings, earnings and valuation.
“This suggests to us that it might take several quarters to see more meaningful financial benefits,” the firm said.
Duolingo didn’t provide a comment.
Meanwhile, the biggest companies in the tech industry may similarly be years away from seeing if their big AI wagers result in profits. But investors aren’t terribly concerned.
Alphabet and Amazon both rallied after reporting earnings in late October. The companies again raised their forecasts for capital expenditures for the year and suggested that there’s no slowdown coming in 2026.
Amazon Web Services is the leading provider of cloud infrastructure, a market where Google is third, and is racing to build out data centers to meet expected demand for compute capacity tied to AI. AWS and Google are also investing in their own silicon so that they’re less dependent on Nvidia and can offer customers a more complete tech stack.
Microsoft, which is second in the cloud infrastructure market, slipped after its earnings report, which also included a guide to higher capex. But the company, valued at close to $4 trillion, still mostly has the backing of Wall Street as it competes for more AI deals and bigger workloads.
The exception among the megacaps is Meta, which sank 11% following earnings. The company expects to spend as much as $72 billion this year on capex, but doesn’t sell a cloud service that rivals Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, as he delivers a speech presenting the new line of smart glasses, during the Meta Connect event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., Sept. 17, 2025.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
While Meta says it’s infusing AI across its product portfolio and improving targeting in its core ad business, the lack of clarity surrounding revenue is giving investors pause. Mahaney grouped Meta in with companies that he said “negatively surprised” the market.
Roblox was also in that category.
Shares of the online gaming platform fell almost 16% on Oct. 30, after the company warned that higher spending on safety and infrastructure could hit margins. CEO David Baszucki told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that safety on its platform was a “top priority.”
Finance chief Naveen Chopra said the investments may weigh on near-term engagement and bookings but are “a magnifier of longer-term growth.”
Analysts at Benchmark downgraded shares to hold from buy, expecting investments will hinder profitability. Roth analysts, who recommend holding the stock, also see a potential hit to margins next year.
“The impact from these initiatives may negatively impact platform engagement in the near term,” the analysts at Roth wrote, “but is expected to have a greater long-term benefit for users.”
The chief executive of Finland’s Oura told CNBC on Tuesday that he expects the wearable tech company to generate close to $2 billion in sales next year.
The smart ring maker has upped its forecast as it invests in artificial intelligence and international expansion, hot on the heels of a $900 million funding round in October.
Oura is on track to secure $1 billion in sales in 2025, doubling its 2024 revenue, CEO Tom Hale told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal from Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
Next year is “certainly going to be a lot more,” Hale said in an exclusive interview. “I don’t know if we know exactly how much but, it’ll be north, maybe close to $2 billion.”
It represents a sharp increase from a previously reported sales forecast of over $1.5 billion, setting Oura up to nearly double sales for a second year running.
“I think a big part of that is just that we’ve really hit the market well with health features for women, we’ve expanded internationally, all these things are driving our growth,” Hale said.
The Finnish company, which is valued at $11 billion, sold over 5.5 million Oura Rings since the product’s launch in 2015 up until September. Oura says it has sold more than 2.5 million rings since June 2024.
Oura has been an “AI-forward company from the get-go,” Hale said, but he is even more bullish on the company’s adoption of AI going forward as the company eyes a range of preventative healthcare features.
“One of the things that Oura does particularly well is it generates insights — basically text — for you that helps you understand your metrics,” he said. The company uses AI to translate those data points into advice and coaching. It has also its own chatbot, the Oura Advisor, which is like a “doctor in your pocket” that can be asked questions, Hale added.
“One the things that we really believe is that we can become like this sort of guardian angel, right, that’s with you all the time and is starting to give you these predictions about your longer-term health,” Hale said.
Despite Oura’s ambitions, there is “no news on an IPO,” he added.