Microsoft Cleared In US Court To Complete Activision Blizzard King Buyout – News
UK be damned, apparently.
A judge in California has cleared the Microsoft acquisition of Activision.
The US Federal Trade Commission was seeking an injunction preventing the deal from closing while it was reviewed further, but Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the injunction request after a week of testimony. This opens the door for the US$68.7bn megadeal to close before an upcoming deadline – assuming the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority reaches a settlement or is bypassed.
In the ruling, Judge Corley cited Microsoft’s public commitments to extend the release of the Call of Duty franchise to other platforms – including Nintendo platforms – and that Nintendo consoles did constitute competition in the game console market (which would leave Microsoft as the #3 player in the market). As well, agreements to bring ABK products to other cloud services – the linchpin of the UK’s block of the deal – were also considered.
The FTC can request an emergency appeal, though no indication has been given that they would appeal. A previous injunction loss by the FTC in a case involving Meta acquiring VR developer Within was not appealed.
