The planned billion-dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard will be a rollercoaster ride for Microsoft. First, a US judge on Tuesday rejected the application of the US competition authority FTC for a temporary block on the largest deal in the video game industry to date. As a result, UK cartel regulators announced they would reconsider their ban on the $69 billion takeover. However, a new test may now be necessary.
The merging companies will not have the option to propose new concessions once a final report is available. “But you can decide to restructure the deal, which could lead to a new merger review.” Microsoft and Activision have signaled changes based on which the agency is ready to talk.
On Wall Street, shares of the two companies then fell more than 1.5 percent each ahead of the stock market. By Tuesday, Activision had won 10 percent in response to the court’s ruling. However, analysts expected a quick agreement on the new terms of the acquisition. After all, all parties have indicated that they are willing to talk.
Concessions don’t go far enough for the British
Unlike their colleagues in the EU, the British competition watchdog did not find Microsoft’s earlier concessions sufficient. Among other things, the software giant had offered to issue long-term licenses for the Activision classic Call of Duty to competitors such as Sony and Nintendo. The statements in the US antitrust case weakened the CMA’s argument, said Joost Van Dreunen, an associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
The American judge ruled in summary proceedings that the FTC could not prove that after a takeover by Activision, Microsoft would no longer release the game “Call of Duty” for Sony’s PlayStation or that competition would be substantially affected by the Jacqueline Scott Korley deal. The US antitrust authorities expressed their disappointment with the decision. According to an insider, she plans to appeal. She has until Friday to do so. The FTC declined to comment officially.
However, the FTC’s case against the Microsoft-Activision deal is still pending. The authority is now faced with the question of whether this lawsuit, which can be heard from August, should be withdrawn. In February, she decided to take such a step in the dispute over the acquisition of the software company Within by Facebook’s parent company Meta.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
