Microsoft Wins in U.S.; Activision Blizzard Acquisition Almost Certain
Microsoft has won the court battle with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Thus, nothing now stands in the way of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
On Friday, Activision Blizzard's Twitter profile posted a message with the above graphic, accompanied by the following comment: "This is what confidence looks like." The community quickly concluded that this tweet was not an announcement of a new game starring Crash, but a kind of confirmation of the victory of Microsoft and AB in the court battle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that has played out in recent weeks.
Now we know for sure - after five days of hearings, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that FTC's concerns about the possible competitive disruption in the gaming industry caused by the merger between the Redmond giant and Activision Blizzard were not enough to block it. Thus, the deal has pretty much been given the green light in the United States.
In a statement, leading the case, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley wrote:
"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.
This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED."
Both the vice chairman of Microsoft's board of directors, Brad Smith, and the head of the Xbox brand, Phil Spencer, thanked the court for resolving the case in their favor. Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick also issued a similar message, expressing the hope that the decision will make regulators around the world accept the merger in question.
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard can be expected to be finalized within a week, i.e. by July 18. Otherwise, the terms of the $68.7 billion deal would have to be renegotiated.
