The Federal Trade Commission has officially halted its administrative trial regarding Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This move, as reported by Bloomberg, allows for discussions between the agency and the companies to reach a settlement for the massive $68.7 billion merger.
The FTC’s decision to pause the case is a significant win for Microsoft and Activision as they work towards finalizing the deal. The agency filed a lawsuit to block the merger in December, and an evidentiary hearing was scheduled for August 2nd. However, last week, the FTC lost a legal attempt to prevent the companies from merging before the administrative trial was set to begin in early August. The FTC has appealed this court ruling.
“The FTC has not demonstrated that it is likely to succeed in its claim that the combined company will likely remove Call of Duty from Sony PlayStation, or that its ownership of Activision content will significantly reduce competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming…”
2023-07-20 18:05:13
Source from www.engadget.com