The clock is ticking on gaming’s biggest acquisition | The DeanBeat

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In the antitrust case against Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition, there are jokesters who are wondering which side the Federal Trade Commission is really on.

The FTC sued to stop the merger and the judge in the case — U.S. District Court judge Jacqueline Scott Corley — ruled in Microsoft’s favor on Tuesday. The judge wondered if the FTC was really arguing that Microsoft’s acquisition was unfair to Sony, and she urged the FTC’s lawyers to focus on the potential harm to consumers. After all, consumers are the ones that antitrust law protects.

Meanwhile, you have to wonder if Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is secretly hoping that the FTC succeeds in delaying the merger past its closing date on July 18. If so, Activision Blizzard gets a $3 billion deal breakup fee from Microsoft. But I don’t think that’s what Kotick wants, as he stands to personally gain a lot of money if the deal goes through. And if the deal is delayed, there is no guarantee that the two parties will be able to come to an agreement again on things like the price.

I suppose the teams on both sides of the deal will just make sure the deal closes anyway, to avoid the risk of reopening negotiations, and regardless of the ultimate decision in the antitrust case.

In the meantime, the judge noted that the FTC got a lot of what it wanted when Microsoft preemptively committed to letting PlayStation keep Call of Duty for 10 years on the platform and also cut similar deals with Nintendo and cloud gaming partners too.

Nasdaq is betting on the merger finishing. On Friday, it said it was removing Activision Blizzard from Nasdaq indices ahead of the