FTC Suffers Another Major Blow In Fight Against Xbox Activsion Deal

The absolute last thing we want to talk about is the FTC and the Xbox Activision Blizzard deal after all the back and forth that went on a couple of years ago, but there’s still fresh information coming out of it, albeit along similar lines.

Basically, you remember how the FTC was denied a preliminary injunction back in 2023 to prevent (or at least delay) the Xbox takeover? It’s been ruled by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today that the decision at the time was the correct one, and that the FTC hasn’t done enough to convince that the acquisition would “substantially lessen competition in the relevant markets”.

“In its administrative complaint and in seeking a preliminary injunction in the district court, the FTC asserted that the merger would likely violate § 7 of the Clayton Act because, viewing the merger as a vertical integration between a content-platform operator and a content producer, competition would be substantially lessened in the relevant U.S.-based content-platform markets for gaming console devices, gaming subscription services, and gaming cloud streaming services.

The panel held that the district court applied the correct legal standards and did not abuse its discretion, or rely on clearly erroneous findings, in holding that the FTC failed to make a sufficient evidentiary showing to establish the requisite likelihood of success on the merits of its § 7 claim. Thus, the FTC had not raised serious questions regarding whether the proposed merger was likely to substantially lessen competition in the relevant markets.”

It remains to be seen what will happen next, with the potential for the FTC to pursue another appeal or other types of combative action, but hopefully this is the last we’re going to hear of it now.

Xbox is obviously pushing full steam ahead with Activision Blizzard these days, and the acquisition ultimately sparked off a new era for the brand, with Microsoft embarking on some major changes for its gaming division ever since.

If you’re interested, you can read the full 39-page document on today’s decision via the US Courts website.