US court unblocks Microsoft's mega deal with gaming giant Activison
Now there are no more obstacles to the $75 billion deal
A US court has unblocked the largest deal in the history of the gaming market – Microsoft's $75 billion acquisition of Activison Blizzard (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft). There are no obstacles to the deal in the US, and the British regulator has taken a break to review the terms. Experts also call it a positive sign for Microsoft.
Source. The Wall Street Journal writes about it.
The judge ruled that the antitrust regulator FTC did not prove to the court the negative impact of the deal on the console gaming and cloud gaming market, as well as the fact that the combined company will remove Call of Duty from Sony's PlayStation and leave it only on its Xbox.
"On the contrary, the record indicates that the availability of Call of Duty and other Activision content will only improve," the decision says.
This is yet another defeat for the FTC, whose head, 32-year-old Lina Khan, received a de facto mandate from President Joe Biden to curb big tech. Khan insists that the regulator should act proactively and prevent a decrease in diversity and competition, even if the availability of goods to consumers does not decrease. For instance, she considers the approval of the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook a strategic miscalculation.
The FTC still has the option of appealing the decision, which the regulator may not use. The regulator has at least one more major deal in the pipeline: Amazon's purchase of iRobot for $1.7 billion.
On Wednesday, Microsoft's stock rose 2% after the opening, while Activison's stock came closest to the deal price in the year and a half since its announcement.
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