After the competition watchdog first stopped the tech giant’s plan to buy the game giant Activision Blizzard, Mr. Smith said those things.

He said the UK had “severely shaken” people’s faith in it.

That being said, he now says the Competition and Markets Authority was “tough and fair” when it approved the deal.

In an interview with the BBC’s Today Programme, Mr. Smith said, “It forced Microsoft to change the acquisition that we had proposed and for Activision Blizzard to spin out some rights that the CMA was worried about with respect to cloud gaming.”

The CMA stopped Microsoft from buying Activision in April of last year because they thought it would slow down innovation and make it harder for customers to choose from in the quickly growing cloud game market.

What gamers should know about Microsoft’s big game deal
The Xbox is owned by Microsoft, and games like the famous Call of Duty series are made by Activision Blizzard.

Mr. Smith also said that it made the European Union a better place to do business when it was first turned down.

It was bad news for the UK government, which wants to make the country a tech leader.

The government approved the deal in October after Microsoft changed the terms of its offer.

Mr. Smith told the BBC, “I think the CMA proved its point, but it also made a practical way for investment and new ideas to move forward.” That seems good for everyone.

But Sarah Cardell, who runs the competition watchdog, criticized Microsoft for how it behaved. In October, she said, “Businesses and their advisors should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA.”