The Federal Trade Commission’s request to halt Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of “Call of Duty” creator Activision Blizzard was denied by a U.S. appeals court on Friday.
One of the last remaining obstacles to the deal’s completion and Microsoft’s expansion of its gaming sector has been removed by the decision.
The FTC had also requested a similar stay from Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the U.S. District Court in northern California, but she turned it down late on Thursday.
An inquiry for comments from the FTC did not receive a prompt response.
According to Microsoft President Brad Smith, the Ninth Circuit’s prompt denial of the FTC’s request to further postpone the agreement is much-appreciated. In this marathon of international regulatory reviews, this moves us one step closer to the goal.
The acquisition, which is the biggest in videogame history, still requires British approval.
The FTC may give up the fight now that its most recent appeal has been denied, as it has in other circumstances. The most recent instance of this was in February when Within Unlimited, a producer of virtual reality entertainment, was purchased by Meta Platforms. The FTC abandoned its lawsuit after losing in federal court.
On July 18, Microsoft and Activision’s merger agreement will be up. Unless an extension is agreed upon, either firm will be entitled to terminate the agreement after July 18.
The Competition and Markets Authority in Britain opposes the purchase due to worries about how it may affect cloud gaming competition. It extended its deadline for a final decision to August 29 after receiving a “detailed and complex” new proposal from Microsoft on Friday, while it stated that it will try to make a decision as soon as possible.
Because Microsoft would have an incentive to exclude competitors like Sony Group, the FTC had contended that the agreement would harm consumers in the United States, regardless of whether they subscribed to services or played video games on consoles. Microsoft replied by providing competitors with 10-year licences.
However, Judge Corley said on Tuesday that the agreement complied with antitrust law and rejected the FTC’s request to impose a preliminary injunction so that the FTC could bring the matter before an internal FTC judge in August.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided on the agency’s appeal of the defeat on Friday.
“This issue involves more than just a single video game and the equipment needed to play it on a console. It concerns the gaming industry’s future. The FTC stated in a submission to the appeals court that “at issue is how future gamers will play and whether the burgeoning subscription and cloud marketplaces will calcify into confined, walled gardens.
Microsoft has agreed to grant rival Nintendo access to “Call of Duty” from Activision, subject to the agreement’s completion. According to the business, agreements like these demonstrate that it has no intention of hoarding the games for use on its Xbox platform and subscription service.
