The Federal Trade Commission official on Thursday withdrew the agency’s case before an in-house judge that sought to dam Microsoft’s $75 billion acquisition of game-maker Activision.
The agency has been pursuing a two-pronged attack against the proposed transaction.
One was in district court, which refused last week to slap a preliminary injunction on the proposed transaction.
An appeals court also turned down a request for the deal to be paused.
The Federal Trade Commission, headed by Lina Kahn, has suffered setbacks in court in its pursuit to dam the deal.REUTERS
The second was before an FTC administrative law judge, where the deal was set to go to trial on Aug. 2. It was this attack that the agency placed on hold on Thursday, in an order made by FTC Secretary April Tabor.
Microsoft and Activision argued in a motion posted to the FTC’s website on Wednesday that withdrawing the agency’s case was each mandatory and in the general public interest.
Microsoft is searching for to amass “Call of Duty” maker Activision for $75 billion. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“The district court had a full opportunity to contemplate the FTC’s claims and located that the Commission was unlikely to succeed on the merits of those claims for multiple, independently sufficient reasons,” the businesses said of their motion.
