Fate of record tech industry tie-up headed to judge as Microsoft defends $69B Activision deal

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The fate of what could be the priciest merger in tech industry history will soon be in the hands of a federal judge who must decide whether to stop Microsoft from closing its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard.

Federal antitrust enforcers have sued to block the $69 billion acquisition that they say will harm competition between Microsoft and gaming industry competitors such as Sony and Nintendo.

Both Microsoft and Activision have suggested that such a delay would effectively force them to abandon the deal they signed 17 months ago. Microsoft promised to pay a $3 billion breakup fee to Activision if the deal doesn’t close by July 18. Corley has shown skepticism of the FTC’s arguments against the Activision deal, particularly on Thursday when she stopped the agency’s lead attorney during his closing arguments to ask him to pin down “exactly what is the harm” to consumers.

But the FTC’s lead attorney in the case, James Weingarten, on Thursday sought to undercut Microsoft’s assertions that it didn’t care much about making games exclusive. Weingarten grilled a financial executive at Microsoft’s Xbox division about the company’s internal strategy discussions for the Activision Blizzard acquisition as well as its 2021 purchase of another top game-maker, ZeniMax, for $7.5 billion.

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Fate of record tech industry tie-up heads to judge as Microsoft defends $69B Activision dealThe fate of what could be the priciest merger in tech industry history will soon be in the hands of a federal judge who must decide whether to stop Microsoft from closing its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard.
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