Microsoft has been arranging the largest deal in the modern gaming industry, attempting to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, one of the biggest publishers and developers. Recently, Microsoft cleared another major hurdle involving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that was trying to hold things up.
While an antitrust trial regarding the acquisition will still be held by the FTC on August 2, the decision by Jacqueline Scott Corley, US District Judge, means the FTC will not receive the injunction to halt the deal from progressing in the meantime. Although there is room for an appeal, the FTC only has until July 14 to do so.
The decision was made on July 11, with a rejection of the FTC’s argument stating the deal was anti-competitive.
The FTC has not shown it is likely to succeed on its assertion the combined firm will probably pull Call of Duty from Sony PlayStation, or that its ownership of Activision content will substantially lessen competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming markets.
Judge Jacqueline Corley
In the United Kingdom, the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger was blocked regarding concerns over the cloud gaming market. However, it was approved by the European Union.
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Microsoft has had approvals for the deal in more than 35 countries even before the FTC decision, so it remains to be seen how things will play out globally.
Currently, the deadline to close the deal is July 18. Still, the block from the UK will require some sort of navigation at some point. After the decision by Corley, both the FTC and Microsoft revealed that the appeal is being put on hold as the companies work through remedies that could potentially allow the deal to go through.
Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO has stated that the merger will “benefit consumers and workers” and will “enable competition rather than allow entrenched market leaders to continue to dominate our rapidly growing industry.”