U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Denies Final Federal Trade Commission Request to Stay Moratorium on Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard; likely to open the way.
The FTC is Asked to keep acquisitions on hold It filed a July 18 deadline, appealing the Northern District of California judgment on Microsoft’s side. For the antitrust agency, this call of duty, world of warcraftand candy crush All are Xbox extensions.
Regulators argued that the federal court ignored evidence that Microsoft might have reasonable incentives to dedicate these franchises to its own consoles and cloud gaming platform in order to corner the market.Microsoft this time FTC accused of using delay tactics Also underestimated is the massive $3 billion penalty Microsoft would have to pay Activision if the deal didn’t go through for any reason.
The Ninth Circuit will continue to process that appeal, Denied FTC petition The merger was blocked until the ruling was handed down, giving Microsoft the green light to close the deal on July 17.
The road to get here has been a long one, with twists and turns, including abroad in the UK, the only country so far to block the deal. The country’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) had rejected the merger on the grounds that it would give Microsoft an excessive advantage in the nascent cloud gaming market.
But after the FTC lost its first court case earlier this week, the CMA announced: Resuming negotiations with Microsoft Over new ways to solve antitrust violations. The company has now extended the deadline for deal approvals to August, signaling its readiness to accept the tech giant’s latest concessions.
Nothing is decided until it’s finalized, but Microsoft’s shocking acquisition of one of the world’s biggest game publishers appears to be becoming a reality, potentially completely reshaping the video game world in the process. There will be sex soon. Alternatively, the Xbox owner may get even more free games with his Game Pass. Time will tell.