Microsoft’s battle to get its acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved by global regulators continues, with the US Federal Trade Commission recently subpoenaing Nintendo. The FTC specifically subpoenaed Nintendo of America VP of publisher and developer relations Steve Singer for up to seven hours of testimony. Why?
When Microsoft and Nintendo agreed to 10-year deal for Call of Duty with “full feature and content parity” on its platforms, the negotiator was Singer. As per Nintendo of America’s legal counsel, the subpoena was only issued on March 29th-30th, while the deadline was March 3rd. It asked for the negotiator’s identity around March 16th and then allegedly issued the subpoena after learning it was Singer.
As for why Singer has been subpoenaed, the Federal Trade Commission is looking for more information on the deal between Microsoft and Nintendo. Perhaps this is to check if there’s anything harmful to other parties, like Sony, who has opposed the acquisition and any agreements with Microsoft.
The commission has already expressed discontent with such deals, stating that despite “clearly intending to use these agreements in its defense, Microsoft has refused to produce underlying internal documents related to these agreements.” As always, stay tuned for more details.