Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago)
Microsoft's XBox business has never been objectively successful. It cost the company a lot of money. Years ago it was already going downhill fast. As a reminder, Skype just totally died very fast like the fall of the Soviet Union, but we hinted at this outcome months earlier. We considered several measurable data points and said that its days were likely numbered. Months later GitHub also got "folded" - shoehorned onto the Ponzi scheme of fake financial models [1, 2].
For several years already it has been possible to assert that XBox is doomed, but the "media" "pundits" that just parrot other pundits/staff/"analysts" kept mum; they "played safe" and they still rarely say this out loud (even if they believe so).
In recent weeks and days we saw even former XBox executives saying it out loud.
In this morning's Daily Links we mentioned again how mass cancellations took down the site (or "page"... for the "webapp"). There's no stopping this kind of news [1] and now the former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has a "I told you so!" moment [2,3].
When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well. IBM is the same. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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GameStop promises to keep selling Game Pass Ultimate for $19.99 — company defies Microsoft's 50% price increase
GameStop says it will continue to offer Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at its old price of $19.99 after Abusive Monopolist Microsoft raised the price by 50%.
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As Microsoft lays off thousands and jacks up Game Pass prices, former FTC chair says I told you so: The Activision-Blizzard buyout is 'harming both gamers and developers'
"Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been followed by significant price hikes and layoffs, harming both gamers and developers," Khan wrote on X. "As we’ve seen across sectors, increasing market consolidation and increasing prices often go hand-in-hand.
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Former FTC Chair Criticizes Xbox Activision Merger Amid Game Pass Price Hike
Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has renewed her criticism of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, pointing to recent Xbox Game Pass price increases and layoffs as proof of the deal’s negative consequences. Her comments came in response to a post on social media highlighting contradictions between Microsoft’s courtroom statements and its current business strategy.
In March 2023, Microsoft assured a court that “Game Pass prices will not increase as a result of the [Microsoft-Activision] Merger.” However, Lee Hepner, a senior legal counsel, resurfaced the pledge this week, noting that only months later, a federal judge rejected the FTC’s challenge to the acquisition. Hepner emphasized that the judge’s son was employed by Microsoft at the time, further fueling debate about the ruling.
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Ex-FTC Chair Slams Microsoft As ‘Too-Big-To-Care’ After Game Pass Price Jumps 50 Percent
Microsoft’s unpopular Game Pass price hikes have caught the attention of Lina Khan. The former head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took to social media on Friday to once again criticize the company’s acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard. “As dominant firms become too-big-to-care, they can make things worse for their customers without having to worry about the consequences,” she wrote just a day after the price of Game Pass Ultimate rose to $30 a month.
It was Khan’s FTC during the Biden Administration that sued Microsoft to prevent the $70 billion Activision Blizzard deal from going through. The regulator argued that further market consolidation in gaming would harm consumers, and ended up taking the matter to court. A judge ultimately ruled in favor of Microsoft, but that hasn’t stopped Khan and others from criticizing the outcome in the years since.