Microsoft’s president on fresh bid for Activision Blizzard: ‘Up to the regulators’ to decide
Microsoft says it “really tried” to take the concerns of U.K. regulators to heart, before launching its fresh bid to take over Activision Blizzard — and it’s now up to the regulators to decide whether that path is clear.
“I think we need to let the regulators speak for themselves,” Microsoft’s vice-chairman and president Brad Smith told CNBC in an exclusive interview. “They have decisions that need to be made, especially in the U.K., but from my vantage point, what we’ve really tried to do is take these concerns to heart.”
Last Tuesday, Microsoft submitted a new proposal to U.K. regulators for the takeover of American game publisher Activision Blizzard after its initial proposal was rejected.
Microsoft and Activision have agreed to a new, restructured agreement, which the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority will now investigate with a decision deadline of Oct. 18.
Microsoft submitted a new proposal to U.K. regulators for the takeover of American game publisher Activision Blizzard after its initial proposal was rejected.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
It will be up to the regulators, especially now in the U.K., to decide whether that path is clear.
Brad Smith
Microsoft’s vice-chairman and president
On regulatory concerns, Smith said: “We haven’t tried to dismiss them. We haven’t tried to downplay them. We haven’t tried to ignore them.”
“We’ve worked to address them, and by addressing them, we have put together a transaction that will advance competition, while also eliminating the concerns on the anti-competitive side that some people had,” he told CNBC’s Martin Soong on the sidelines of the Business 20 Summit in New Delhi.
“I think it will be up to the regulators, especially now in the U.K., to decide whether that path is clear,” he said in an interview aired Monday.
U.K. regulators, the Competition and Markets Authority, said that under the new deal, Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights for existing Activision PC and console games, or for new games released by Activision for the next 15 years.
Instead, French gaming publisher Ubisoft will acquire those rights before Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, the CMA added.
“That to me, is not just a recipe for this transaction,” said Smith.
“I think that in the world of technology, whether we’re talking about software or hardware or pharmaceuticals, there are times when companies can come together in advance innovation, produce better products, and there may be steps that need to be taken at the same time to address regulatory concerns.”
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., wears a pair of Meta Ray-Ban Display AI glasses during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta continues to sink money into the metaverse, anchored by virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.
The company reported third-quarter earnings on Wednesday and said that the Reality Labs division recorded an operating loss of $4.4 billion while generating $470 million in sales during the period.
Wall Street was expecting Reality Labs to post an operating loss of $5.1 billion on $316 million in revenue.
The Reality Labs unit is responsible for developing the company’s Quest-branded family of VR headsets and Ray-Ban and Oakley AI smart glasses that Meta develops in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica.
The company’s Reality Labs division has now recorded over $70 billion in cumulative losses since late 2020, underscoring the high costs of building VR, AR and other consumer hardware.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in September revealed the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which are the company’s first consumer-ready AI glasses that include a built-in display and an accompanying wristband with neural technology.
EssilorLuxottica said in its most recent earnings report earlier this month that those AI glasses helped lift its sales in the third quarter.
“Clearly there is a lift coming from Ray-Ban Meta wearables as a product category,” EssilorLuxottica CFO Stefano Grassi said during a third-quarter earnings call.
With Meta’s AI glasses becoming a surprise hit, investors have been monitoring for any signs that the company may be shifting its metaverse strategy.
Meta on Monday said that Vishal Shah, who was leading its metaverse initiatives, is now a vice president of AI products in the company’s Superintelligence Labs division that works on AI.
WATCH: Market volatility reflects AI trade anxiety ahead of Mag 7 earnings.
Bill McDermott, chief executive officer of ServiceNow Inc., during the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, US, on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
ServiceNow reported third-quarter results on Wednesday that blew past Wall Street’s estimates, with the company also approving a five-for-one stock split.
Shares rose 4% after the bell.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates.
- Earnings per share: $4.82 adjusted vs. $4.27 expected
- Revenue: $3.41 billion vs. $3.35 billion expected
Third-quarter subscription revenues, which account for the bulk of the enterprise software company’s sales, totalled $3.3 billion and surpassed a $3.26 billion estimate from StreetAccount. Overall revenues grew 22% from the year-ago period.
ServiceNow bumped up full-year guidance, saying it now expects subscription revenue to range between $12.84 billion and $12.85 billion for the year. Last quarter, the company raised FY guidance to a range of $12.78 billion to $12.80 billion.
Like many software companies, ServiceNow is benefitting from the artificial intelligence transformation that’s forcing more businesses to adopt the tools.
“Every enterprise in every industry is focused on AI as the innovation opportunity of our generation,” wrote CEO Bill McDermott in a release. He called the results the “clearest demonstration” that businesses are relying on ServiceNow for these capabilities.
Finance chief Gina Mastantuono told CNBC that the annual contract value for ServiceNow’s AI business is projected to surpass $500 million this year and on track toward the goal set at its investor day to reach $1 billion by 2026.
“The value AI is going to create in enterprise is like nothing that we’ve seen in a very, very long time,” she said. “We have real customers, it’s not just hype, and we have real values and we’re driving real outcomes for those customers.”
Net income hit $502 million, or $2.40 per share, up from $432 million, or $2.07 per share, during the same quarter in 2024. Current remaining performance obligations reached $11.35 billion.
ServiceNow said its fourth-quarter guidance accounts for ongoing U.S. government uncertainty and the recent shutdown. The company expects $3.42 billion to $3.43 billion in subscription revenues.
“Whenever the government reopens, the administration’s continued focus on cost efficiency and modernization aligns directly with our strengths,” she said, adding that ServiceNow’s U.S. federal business grew more than 30% in the third quarter.
ServiceNow’s board also approved a five-for-one stock split slated for the beginning of December. Mastantuono said the split will make shares accessible to more retail investors.
The stock is down about 13% year to date.
ServiceNow year-to-date stock chart.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee at the Federal Reserve on Oct. 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the artificial intelligence boom is different from the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.
“This is different in the sense that these companies, the companies that are so highly valued, actually have earnings and stuff like that,” Powell said, during a news conference following the Fed’s two-day policy meeting.
AI investments in data centers and chips are also a major source of economic growth, he said. In the dotcom era, numerous companies raced to big valuations before going bankrupt due to hefty losses.
Powell didn’t name specific vendors, but chipmaker Nvidia has emerged as the world’s most valuable company, surpassing $5 trillion in market cap. The rally has been driven by the company’s graphics processing units, which are at the heart of AI models and workloads.
However, while Nvidia is generating big profits, high-valued startups OpenAI and Anthropic have been burning cash as they develop and expand their services.
OpenAI has racked up $1 trillion in AI deals of late, despite being set to generate only $13 billion in annual revenue. Anthropic, which is at a $7 billion revenue run rate, last week announced an estimated $50 billion cloud partnership with Google.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024