UK PM Rishi Sunak Will ‘Strategically Steer’ The CMA To ‘Not Get In The Way’

gameranx.com:

Microsoft and Activision just received a powerful new ally in their quest to finalize their merger acquisition deal. It’s no less that the prime minister of the UK.

Rishi Sunak, who has been prime minister since October 2022, is under heavy pressure to live up to his campaign promises of running a pro-business government. At the end of April, when CMA revealed that they had ‘prevented’ the Microsoft – Activision deal from pushing through, Microsoft president Brad Smith, in an interview with the BBC, made a scathing statement about the UK government, claiming that the decision was ‘bad for Britain’, ‘a message that will discourage innovation and investment in the United Kingdom’, and ‘the darkest day in our four decades in Britain.’

The statement had such an impact that the head of the CMA (who we should clarify, was not part of the group that decided on the Microsoft – Activision deal) and Rishi Sunak’s office felt compelled to share responses.

Now, PM Sunak shared a new message on his LinkedIn page. As reported by IdleSloth, Sunak claims he wants to “make it as easy as possible for British businesses to thrive.”

 Sunak’s message directly and indirectly referring to the CMA, in talking about his office’s planned reforms to government regulation.

Sunak also links to the official UK government website announcing their new deregulation measures. To quote from their press release:

“Stimulating innovation, investment and growth by announcing two strategic policy statements to steer our regulators.

We are today publishing the first of these statements for consultation, on energy policy, which will be followed soon after by the Government’s strategic steer to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).”

Neither Sunak nor the