The ongoing merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard has yet again hit another snag; this time, the U.S. FTC has requested a block on the deal.
The $68.7 billion merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard continues to be plagued by litigation, and since the merger was announced by both parties back in January 2022, the biggest deal in video game history has seen a lot of pushback. While the deal faced a legal setback from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority back in April, this time around, the block has come domestically from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC requested that the merger be blocked, and US District Judge Edward Davila granted the block temporarily on 13 June.
Judge Davila has scheduled a two-day evidentiary hearing, to be held on 22 and 23 June, on the FTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction. The motion follows the FTC’s filing of a lawsuit in December 2022 seeking to block the acquisition. Judge Davila said the temporary restraining order “is necessary to preserve the status quo while the complaint is pending (and) to preserve this Court’s ability to order effective relief in the event that it determines that a preliminary injunction is warranted, and to preserve the FTC’s ability to obtain effective permanent relief in the event that it prevails in its pending administrative proceeding,” Reuters reports, regarding the temporary restraining order.
The Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger has been going through the legal wringer since it was announced, with the UK’s CMA and the US’s FTC throwing up their hands, but it is worth noting that South Africa, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Serbia have already approved the merger. Microsoft said: “Speeding up the process in the US will ultimately bring more choice and competition to the gaming market. A preliminary injunction makes sense until we get a decision from the court, which is moving quickly” regarding the FTC block. The court date for the evidentiary hearing starts on June 22nd.
Just last December, we saw the FTC file an “administrative complaint” against the Microsoft and Activision deal. A hearing with an FTC administrative law judge isn’t set to begin until August 2nd, so there is still plenty to keep an eye on regarding the merger in the US alone.
But it’s not just the US that’s having a hard time swallowing this merger. Over in the UK, Microsoft and Activision aren’t taking a governmental decision to torpedo their merger lying down. This decision, all about some significant worries over the competition in the cloud gaming arena, has spurred them to appeal. Mark your calendars – the appeal hearing’s been scheduled for July 28th. It looks like this summer is going to be hot in more ways than one.
