The appeal filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prevent the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is the second loss for the FTC, which previously saw its request for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft denied by US federal judge Jacqueline Scott Corley.
On January 2022, Microsoft announced the largest acquisition in gaming history, with its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion. Once this deal is closed, all games from Activision, Blizzard, and King would fall under the Xbox Game Studios division, adding various popular IPs and franchises to Microsoft’s lineup ranging from Call of Duty to Diablo and Candy Crush Saga. Due to the massive size of this acquisition, the deal had to be reviewed by various government antitrust commissions. While several countries gave their green light for this acquisition, two tried to shut down the deal: the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority was opposed to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requested a preliminary injunction to block the merger.
The legal battle between the FTC and Microsoft regarding the acquisition of Activision Blizzard might finally come to an end soon, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the FTC’s request to halt Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. According to Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, Microsoft has committed in writing to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years and port the game to Nintendo Switch, and will bring various Activision games to cloud gaming services. Since Microsoft doesn’t seem to pose a threat to its competitors, the Court doesn’t have any reason to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
This decision means that Microsoft is now free to complete its deal with Activision Blizzard. The two companies have until July 18 to close this unprecedented deal, otherwise, they may need to negotiate the merger’s terms. With the FTC losing the legal battle against Microsoft, only one authority remains in the way of the Activision Blizzard merger: the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA fears the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft could pose a threat to its competitors, especially in the cloud gaming market. The CMA and Microsoft are currently looking for ways to appease these antitrust concerns and modify the deal’s terms to ensure there is no threat to the overall balance of the gaming industry.
Source: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit