Microsoft's ATVI Merger Cleared After Regulatory Battle.

The UK's top antitrust judge, Mr Justice Marcus Smith, has assigned the highest possible priority to the adjudication of Microsoft's appeal of the Competition & Markets Authority's (CMA) attempt to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. At yesterday's initial case management conference, the CMA came across as the opposite of a responsible and trustworthy regulator. The CMA is digging itself an ever bigger hole instead of finding a way out of the mess it created because Mr Justice Smith isn't having any of that.