Microsoft wins FTC court case to buy Activision Blizzard, UK CMA halts appeal
The Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard looks like it’s going ahead, as the courts have denied the US Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction. In light of the US ruling, the UK’s Conumser and Markets Authority has agreed to halt their upcoming legal spat and head back to the negotiating table.
As you would expect, Activision Blizzard stocks have shot up 11% as the markets show more confidence in Microsoft completing the deal within the next few weeks – they have a contractual deadline on 18th July to do so.
After a five day long court battle that had Microsoft saying they’d lost the console wars, revealing that more Bethesda games would be Xbox exclusives (and their execs blindsided by the Call of Duty cross-platform pledge), and failed redactions from Sony’s submitted documentation, and plenty more besides, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has landed firmly on Microsoft’s side in the argument.
The FTC was not able to convince her that Microsoft buying Activision would be anti-competitive, and noted that regulator scrutiny had paid off in forcing them to make COD cross-platform with full parity, and sign partnerships with cloud gaming platforms.
Judge Corley said the following in the ruling:
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services. This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to
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