Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
CNBC
In a victory for Microsoft, the U.S. Appeals Court for the ninth Circuit late on Friday denied the Federal Trade Commission’s motion to temporarily stop Microsoft from closing its $68.7 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft continues to be working to resolve concerns in regards to the transaction from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. The 2 firms have been seeking to close the deal by July 18.
“We appreciate the Ninth Circuit’s swift response denying the FTC’s motion to further delay the deal. This brings us one other step closer to the finish line on this marathon of worldwide regulatory reviews,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and vice chair, said in an announcement
A federal judge in San Francisco, after five days of court hearings, ruled against the FTC on Tuesday, and the federal agency filed its appeal on Wednesday.
The FTC first sued to dam the acquisition last December, then filed for an emergency injunction to dam the completion of the deal before it could have an agency administrative law judge take it up. The FTC has argued that the transaction was anti-competitive because Microsoft might make a few of its games exclusive to its own Xbox game consoles or diminish the experience of Activision games reminiscent of the favored Call of Duty titles on rival services should the deal close. Microsoft has said it will as an alternative make the games more widely available.
In an emergency motion filed with the ninth Circuit on Thursday, the FTC said the district judge “denied preliminary relief, applying the unsuitable legal standard: the court effectively required the FTC to prove its full case on the merits with the court as arbiter of the merger’s legality.” The agency requested a brief injunction while the court considered an appeal of the district court’s conclusion.
Under the leadership of Lina Khan, the FTC has lost other battles with technology firms, including its effort to stop Meta Platforms from buying virtual reality fitness app startup Inside.
The FTC declined to comment.
