Several US lawmakers are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to stop opposing Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard. Shockwaves were sent across the gaming industry when Microsoft announced its plan to purchase mega-publisher Activision Blizzard last year, and since then the proposed deal has been sent through various regulatory bodies around the world. Many concerns about this planned buyout have been raised during these hearings, particularly regarding Microsoft’s hypothetical control over blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty and the Xbox owner gaining a potential monopoly in the growing cloud gaming landscape.
One of the biggest groups opposing Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard is the US Federal Trade Commission, which sued to block the deal last December due to concerns that Microsoft would use its newfound assets to harm competitors. In June, the FTC requested a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition, which was eventually ruled in favor of Microsoft last week. The FTC soon filed an appeal against this ruling, but it was quickly blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Despite these setbacks, the FTC recently scheduled an evidentiary hearing before an Administrative Law judge, which will be held on August 2.
In the meantime, up to 22 Republican members of the House of Representatives are requesting that the FTC drop its efforts to block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout. As reported by IGN, these lawmakers sent a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan and commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya earlier this week, one that urges them to cease its antitrust case against Microsoft and "return to its long history of a sensible, consumer-oriented antitrust enforcement." The letter also claims that the FTC’s recent actions are “ignoring decades of settled FTC practice” and that Microsoft’s deal promises to “expand consumer choice and insulate a dominant foreign company from competition.”
Abroad, Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard has already cleared many regulatory channels in countries like Turkey, China, and Ukraine, as well as the European Union. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority previously blocked the deal back in April, though the regulator has since agreed to talks with Microsoft to address its concerns about how the deal would affect cloud gaming.
Contrary to some reports from earlier this week, Microsoft is still likely a long way off from completing its buyout of Activision Blizzard, as the company still needs to gain the approval of regulatory bodies like the FTC before it can proceed. Many US lawmakers in the House of Representatives seem to want the deal to go through, or at least, push the FTC to give the go-ahead for Microsoft to carry out its potentially industry-changing purchase of Activision Blizzard.
Source: IGN (via US House of Representatives)