Microsoft, regulators tangle in court over fate of $69 billion deal that could reshape video gaming

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Federal regulators on Thursday launched a legal attack on Microsoft's proposed $69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard by depicting it as an anticompetitive weapon while Microsoft hailed the deal as a way to make popular games such as Call of Duty more widely available at cheaper prices.

Those were the dramatically contrasting pictures drawn by lawyers arguing before U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on the first of five days of scheduled hearings in San Francisco that are likely to make or break what would be the most expensive acquisition in technology history.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is trying to persuade Corley to issue an order that would prevent the takeover from being consummated before a more extensive administrative trial begins August 2 in Washington. Meanwhile, Microsoft is fighting to close the deal ahead of a July 18 deadline that would require paying a $3 billion breakup fee to Activision.

Microsoft struck the deal 17 months ago in hopes of expanding its video game imprint beyond its Xbox console, which has about half the market share of the longtime industry leader Sony and its PlayStation device.

But the FTC has been fighting hard to block a deal that it fears will enable Microsoft to make popular franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft exclusive to the Xbox and online subscription services that are becoming an increasingly bigger part of the $210 billion worldwide video game market — larger than the movie and music industries combined.

FTC lawyer James Weingarten told Corley the agency will show evidence that Microsoft will have a “myriad of strategies” to withhold popular games from PlayStation and rival subscription prices, degrade the quality of games