FTC sues to block Microsoft's Activision Blizzard merger

Joystiq

Joystiq News
The Federal Trade Commission has filed an antitrust lawsuit in a bid to block Microsoft's
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
of Activision Blizzard. The FTC started
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and its potential impact on the video game market soon after it was announced in January. Evidently, the agency was concerned enough to pump the brakes on the buyout.

The FTC's commissioners voted in favor of the lawsuit along party lines. The commission's three Democratic approved it and the Republican Commissioner Christine S. Wilson voted against it.


While the lawsuit doesn't necessarily kill the deal, it's unlikely to be resolved by July, as Politico, which had reported that an FTC bid to block the merger was likely,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. That was the deadline Microsoft and Activision set for closing the deal. If the acquisition hasn't closed by then, the companies will have to renegotiate the agreement or even walk away from the merger. Regulators in other jurisdictions have been taking a close look at the deal, including
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
(which should complete its investigation by late March).

Sony is the merger's most prominent opponent. It has expressed concern that Microsoft would make games such as Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox platforms (which could cost Sony hundreds of millions of dollars a year). However, Microsoft has said it wants to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation and it claims to have
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
to that effect.

Just ahead of the FTC's anticipated vote, Microsoft said it
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
to bring Call of Duty games to the company's systems if the merger closes. Call of Duty will also remain on Steam as part of a separate pact with Valve.

Microsoft and Activision have been downplaying the significance of the deal in an attempt to appease regulators and push it through. For one thing, Microsoft has claimed that Sony has more exclusive games, "many of which are better quality," in a filing with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It also said Activision Blizzard
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, despite having some of the most popular titles in the world (including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft) under its umbrella.

That said, Microsoft has suggested that the acquisition the deal is more about gaining a foothold in the mobile gaming market, where Activision's King division is a major player. For instance, Candy Crush Saga has had
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

Developing...

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


Console Bang News!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top