FTC Ends in-House Case Attempting to Block Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 September 2023 / 4,236 Views
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has suspended its case with an in-house judge in an attempt to block Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
The FTC in the US had tried two separate approaches in attempting to block this deal. The first was a lawsuit filed in December that was set to go before its own in-house judge on August 2. The second was to get a preliminary injunction from the courts, however, they lost said case even after an appeal.
Microsoft and Activision in a motion posted on the FTC website stated, "Withdrawal from adjudication is not only mandatory but is in the public interest. The district court had a full opportunity to consider the FTC’s claims and found that the Commission was unlikely to succeed on the merits of those claims for multiple, independently sufficient reasons."
The acquisition has been approved in Turkey, South Africa, South Korea, China, the European Union, Ukraine, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia. With the FTC suspending its attempt to block the deal it has essentially been approved in the US.
The last hurdle for Microsoft and Activision Blizzard is in the UK. The deal was blocked in April, however, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK and Microsoft are working out a new deal.
It was reported last week Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are considering giving up some control over cloud-gaming in the UK to appease the CMA. It is reported Microsoft might be willing to sell its cloud gaming rights in the UK to a telecommunications, gaming or internet-based computing company. One person said a private equity company might be interested.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard this week announced an extension of Microsoft's acquisition of the gaming publisher with a new deadline of October 18 to complete the transaction.
"Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended the merger agreement deadline to 10/18," said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer at the time. "We're optimistic about getting this done, and excited about bringing more games to more players everywhere."
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have also agreed to higher termination fees and new commercial arrangements for the acquisition. Microsoft has to pay a termination fee of $3.5 billion if either parts walks away from the deal on August 29, which increases to $4.5 billion on September 15.
Activision Blizzard has also agreed to potentially "hold separate the Company or certain assets of the Company or to implement other lawful alternatives to consummate the Merger" to satisfy concerns from the UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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would like to know the actual cost of all this
ive been holding off on buying Activision games when go on sale because i know they will eventually be on gamepass
Ditto. I've only played two Call of Duty games (and neither of them are the popular ones... it was Call of Duty 3, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, though I actually really liked CoD:IW). I hear they all target 60 FPS, and I hear some of their campaigns are really good, so I definitely intend to give them a try!
To amuse myself, I intend to play them as if they're one long story. So I'll play the World War II stuff first, followed by the Cold War games, then the Modern Warfare campaigns, and then finally the future war stuff... guess I'll have to hit Wikipedia re: which ones come first within their respective wars, to make sure I'm getting the timeline right!
So, just one small hurdle left before the deal closes. Looking forward to playing a few Activision games I have missed over the years on Gamepass soon.
It's procedural, they can re-submit their case after 2-days from the point of ending it, they had to remove it due to losing in federal court so they may reissue it in a few days, Lol. FTC wasn't a hurdle anymore anyway.
"...a lawsuit filed in December that was set to go before its own in-house judge..."
The fact that this is even a thing is ridiculous. The FTC trying its case in front of a judge who is also an FTC employee, but which has no actual force in law? So not only a kangaroo court, but also an utter waste of taxpayer's money.
That was over faster than I thought it would be.
The FTC, along with all regulators should just let every big corporation to consolidate through the acquisition of smaller companies. If the affected industry was to stagnate as a result, who cares? and who needs competition or progress anyways? Because I don't.
Your issue is you think ABK is everything.
Can’t tell if this is meant to be sarcastic or not.
Competition keeps the industry from becoming dull.
The regulator's jobs are to protect consumers not corporations. That's what you and a lot of people do not understand. Even the U.S. Judge had to remind the FTC they're job is to protect consumers not Sony.
Another thing is even with Microsoft owning Xbox, Bethesda, and Activision Blizzard they still wouldn't even be close to a monopoly. Even just a little knowledge in business and how laws/regulations work goes a long way.
From what I understand, their job is technically not even to protect consumers, but to protect competition itself. In theory that benefits consumers, but the consumer benefit is indirect.
But yes, their job is to protect competition, not competitors. If a competitor screws up enough (wrong products, wrong prices, whatever), then it's not the regulator's job to save them.
The idea that the FTC (and, initially, the CMA) were protecting the market leader from the third-place competitor making an acquisition was always ridiculous to me.
Buying ABK is pro-competition, as Call of Duty will be on more platforms after the acquisition than before, and Microsoft hopes to grow Game Pass to be a competitor to the App Store and the Play Store.
But my strongest interest in this was, and remains, Microsoft's HR department getting in there and absolutely cleaning house, given the horrific HR problems at Activision and Blizzard (I haven't heard anything similar about King, though, in fairness).
