If the merger is consummated, it would enable Microsoft—at a key inflection point in a massive and growing industry—to foreclose platform rivals from a leading input provider: Activision, which produces some of the industry’s most popular games.
Microsoft insists it's happy to work with regulators to address concerns, pointing to the UK Competition and Markets Authority'sOral arguments before the Ninth Circuit are scheduled for December 6, 2023. And Microsoft president Brad Smith said in alast week that 38 signatories have filed nine"friend of the court" briefs in support of the district court's decision to deny the preliminary injunction.