FTC v. Microsoft: all the news from the big Xbox courtroom battle
See all Stories
You can tell Xbox chief Phil Spencer is frustrated by the FTC’s questions here. He remains calm, but he shoots back to illustrate his knowledge of financials and acquisitions.
“Now you have a $70 billion upfront payment to Activision, right?” asks the FTC lawyer. Spencer’s response:
“No, when you acquire something it’s not a payment. It’s like when you buy a house. You’re buying an asset that has value so it’s really a transfer of cash into an asset called Activision, that you believe retains the value that you acquired. So to try and characterize the $70 billion as somehow spent is incorrect. Financially, it’s really moving $70 billion in cash into an asset, which is a game publisher, that to us is actually worth more than $70 billion, so it is not spent.”
