2023-07-12 14:23:47
Redmond (Washington). The planned multi-billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will be a rollercoaster ride for Microsoft. First, a US judge on Tuesday dismissed the US competition authority FTC’s application for a temporary blockade of the largest deal in the video games industry to date. The British cartel supervisors then announced that they would reconsider their ban on the $69 billion takeover. However, a new test may now be necessary.
“The merging companies do not have the opportunity to propose new concessions as soon as a final report is available,” said the British competition authority CMA. “However, they may choose to restructure the deal, which may result in a new merger review.” Microsoft and Activision have signaled changes on the basis of which the authority is ready to talk.
On Wall Street, the shares of the two companies then fell by more than 1.5 percent each before the market. On Tuesday, Activision had gained ten percent in response to the court ruling. However, analysts expected a speedy agreement on the new terms of the takeover. After all, all parties indicated that they would be willing to talk.
Unlike their colleagues in the EU, the British competition watchdog had not considered Microsoft’s previous concessions to be sufficient. Among other things, the software giant had offered to issue long-term licenses for the Activision classic game “Call of Duty” to competitors such as Sony and Nintendo. The statements in the US antitrust case weakened the CMA’s line of argument, said Joost Van Dreunen, an associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
In its application for an injunction, the FTC was unable to demonstrate that Microsoft would no longer release the game “Call of Duty” for Sony’s PlayStation following a takeover by Activision or that competition would be substantially affected by the deal, the US judge ruled Jacqueline Scott Corley. The US antitrust authorities expressed disappointment with the decision. According to an insider, she intends to appeal. She has until Friday to do that. The FTC declined to comment officially.
However, the FTC’s main case once morest the Microsoft/Activision deal is still pending. The authority is now faced with the question of whether to withdraw this lawsuit, which is to be heard from August. In February, she decided to take such a step in the dispute over the takeover of the software company Within by Facebook’s parent company Meta.
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