In December, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And now the date of the first pretrial hearing between Microsoft and the FTC has become known. On January 3, the parties will go to court to discuss the fate of Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. The purchase was announced in early 2022, and the deal was expected to close by June 2023 at the latest.
The FTC is expected to have a hard time convincing the judge of its case. First, Microsoft does not insist on a “horizontal” merger, as a result of which one of its direct competitors will disappear. In addition, the company made it clear that it is ready to make concessions to complete the deal. If the merger goes through, Microsoft has promised to release future Call of Duty games on competing platforms for at least 10 years. It is also said that the franchise will appear on Nintendo consoles.
“The Commission cannot meet its burden of showing that the deal will harm consumers because the deal will allow consumers to play Activision games on new platforms and access them in new and more accessible ways,” Microsoft wrote in legal filings last month.
The deal is also under the scrutiny of the UK Competition and Markets Authority. The agency said it would conduct an “in-depth” investigation into the alleged merger.
Source: Engadget
