FTC Abandons Case on Microsoft’s $69 Billion Activision Blizzard Deal
By Jody Godoy
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission abandoned its legal action aimed at preventing Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company behind “Call of Duty.” On Thursday, they stated that continuing the challenge against the transaction, which has already been completed, would not serve the public interest.
On May 7, the FTC had their appeal denied when they tried to overturn a judge’s ruling that refused to halt the transaction, despite the deal having been completed in 2023.
In cases where a new merger is being contested, the FTC usually requests from a judge an interim injunction to halt the transaction, providing the commission with the opportunity to contest the deal within its administrative tribunal. However, mergers that face such temporary halts frequently fall through.
Although the FTC failed to halt the deal initially, the commission had the option to attempt reversing the acquisition during a trial set for July.
The Activision Blizzard deal represented the biggest acquisition in the history of the video game industry. According to the FTC, this merger could enable Microsoft to better compete against rivals for the Xbox console as well as its subscription and cloud-gaming services.
(Reported by Jody Godoy in New York and Mike Scarcella in Washington; Edited by Chris Reese and Rod Nickel)