The United States Federal Trade Commission has sued in an attempt to prevent the deal for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard from closing.
The FTC's lawsuit asks the US District Court for the Northern District of California to provide a temporary restraining order and an injunction to keep the companies from sealing their acquisition and merger deal. The request is for a temporary restraining order to give the FTC's in-house court the time it needs to consider the deal. The FTC filed a lawsuit in the agency's administrative court back in December saying that the deal should not go through because it is anti-competitive.
This new court filing has been done because the FTC believes that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard could make moves to close their deal at any time without giving notice to the Federal Trade Commission.
According to the filing, “Both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction are necessary because Microsoft and Activision have represented that they may consummate the Proposed Acquisition at any time”.
Today’s action by the FTC to file suit in our Activision case in federal court should accelerate the decision-making process. This benefits everyone. We always prefer constructive and amicable paths with governments but have confidence in our case and look forward to presenting…
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) June 12, 2023
Microsoft president Brad Smith responded to the new lawsuit on Twitter, saying that “Today’s action by the FTC to file suit in our Activision case in federal court should accelerate the decision-making process. This benefits everyone. We always prefer constructive and amicable paths with governments but have confidence in our case and look forward to presenting it”.
The deal has been approved in many countries, while it has been rejected in the UK as well as challenged by the United States Federal Trade commission. Both the FTC and the UK Competition and Markets Authority expressed anti-competitive concerns, with the UK rejecting it outright over cloud gaming concerns.
In other regions, including the European Union via the European commission, have approved the deal. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are actively appealing the UK rejection of their deal, while as Smith says, Microsoft will present their case in response to the newest request from the FTC.
