Microsoft can move ahead with record $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, judge rules

File - An image from Activision's Call of Duty is shown on a smartphone near a photograph of the Microsoft logo in this photo taken in New York, Thursday, June 15, 2023. A judge handed Microsoft a big victory on Tuesday, declining to stop its $69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said in a ruling that the merger deserved scrutiny, noting it could be the largest in the history of the tech industry.

The FTC had asked Corley to issue an injunction temporarily blocking Microsoft and Activision from closing the deal before the FTC’s in-house judge can review it in an August trial. Corley, herself a Biden nominee, expressed skepticism about the FTC’s case during the proceedings, particularly about the hypothetical harms caused if Microsoft were to remove Call of Duty from rival platforms or offer a subpar experience on competing consoles.

In that way, the “scrutiny has paid off,” Corley concluded in her ruling, repeating a message she relayed to regulators in the courtroom last month.“I don't think we won,” Weingarten responded, saying there was no evidence that the “hastily agreed to” contracts would sufficiently protect the market. The British regulator and Microsoft both said Tuesday they have jointly applied to put the hearing on hold while they work out a way to resolve their differences so that the deal can go ahead.

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