Microsoft Has Won The Court Case Against The FTC To Acquire Activision Blizzard

Following a headline-grabbing trial between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the former’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the court has ruled in favour of Microsoft.

The preliminary injunction posed by the FTC looked to, at a minimum, delay the closure of the deal, however, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has denied the motion and has awarded the case to Microsoft. This is a huge roadblock that Microsoft has now passed on its way to closing the $69 billion deal prior to the July 18 deadline, although there are still several regulators to appease, such as the Competition Markets Authority (CTA) in the UK.

In Judge Corley’s decision, she states that “After considering the parties’ voluminous pre-and-post hearing writing submissions, and having held a five-day evidentiary hearing, the Court DENIES the motion for preliminary injunction. The FTC has not shown it is likely to succeed on its assertion the combined firm will probably pull Call of Duty from Sony PlayStation, or that its ownership of Activision content will substantially lessen competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming markets.”

While the FTC is looking to go ahead with an antitrust trial, this will commence on August 2 and will not interfere with the merger prior to the cutoff date. Judge Corley’s concludes her decision by stating that “Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services. ”

Following the decision, Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, took to Twitter to commend the ruling and claim that the acquisition will be good for the industry, saying that “The evidence showed the Activision Blizzard deal is good for the industry and the FTC’s claims about console switching, multi-game subscription services, and cloud don’t reflect the realities of the gaming market.”

3/We know that players around the world have been watching this case closely and I’m proud of our efforts to expand player access and choice throughout this journey. END

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 11, 2023

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There’s undoubtedly more to come from this ongoing acquisition prior to the deal closing, but for now, at least, everything looks to be heading in the right direction for the green machine.

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