Microsoft may continue to acquire video game giant Activision Blizzard in a transaction worth $69,000 million (€62,745 million), with a ruling by a federal court in California on Tuesday.
The decision represents a defeat for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) because it had requested it. judicial intervention to temporarily paralyze the operation until all regulatory and judicial doubts in this matter are cleared.
“[La FTC] The combined company’s claim that it will definitely remove ‘Call of Duty’ from Sony PlayStation or that Activision’s owning of the content is unlikely to materially harm competition in the video game subscription and online gaming markets. judge responsible for the case.
In this way, Microsoft will be free to take over the developer responsible for games such as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘World of Warcraft’ and ‘Diablo’ in a few days before the contractually determined July 18. .
Following this news, the Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Microsoft and Activision Blizzard filed a joint petition with the Court to stay the appeal of the two companies that objected to the British regulator’s decision to block the purchase. because it was predicted that it would reduce competition in the video game market.
“We ready to listen to any offer “From Microsoft to restructure the transaction to address the concerns raised in our Final Report,” a CMA spokesperson said on Tuesday. structure.
Emergency plans
At any rate, given the previous British refusal, Microsoft has already announced that it is considering pulling Activision Blizzard out of the UK to enter into a buyout contract for the video game developer. Even depending on the environment Mountain View company ‘Bloomberg’ He would consider continuing his purchase outside of Britain.
At the end of April, that organization issued a statement saying it rejected the Microsoft proposed acquisition, stating that it did so “out of fear that the operation would change the future of the market” and that it thought Microsoft was in a dominant position. location within streaming services.
The CMA had already tipped the balance in Sony’s favor in its interim findings, released in February, which suggested that closing this acquisition could raise competition concerns in console and cloud gaming services.