Activision Blizzard Acquisition Allegedly In Danger Of Antitrust Case
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In what can only be described as an entirely unsurprising development, Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is looking like it may be blocked by the Federal Trust Committee.
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The news comes following months of deliberations and decisions surrounding the acquisition itself.
Steps Are Reportedly Being Prepared
According to sources over at Politico, a lawsuit challenging the deal isn’t guaranteed but the steps to actually prepare one are already in motion. Depositions have been received from Satya Nadella (Microsoft Boss) and Bobby Kotick (Activision-Blizzard).
If the FTC chooses to move forward with a case it ‘could come as soon as next month’. Any attempt at blocking the deal has one goal: an argument that Microsoft is looking to conglomerate the industry into one and create a monopoly situation where they are in charge of all the major hitters.
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This won’t come as a shock to people who have been following the situation, with the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK investigating the deal, and the European Union has opened an investigation with the following statement:
“The Commission’s preliminary investigation shows that the transaction may significantly reduce competition on the markets for the distribution of console and PC video games, including multigame subscription services and/or cloud game streaming services, and for PC operating systems.
The preliminary investigation suggests that Microsoft may have the ability, as well as a potential economic incentive to engage in foreclosure strategies vis-a-vis Microsoft’s rival distributors of console video games.”
Activision Blizzard Court Documents Release
The news comes following the release of a massive 133 pages of arguments from both Sony and Microsoft about the acquisition. Sony makes up a total of 22 pages of that, while Microsoft makes up a total of 111 pages.
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Interestingly, the documents are rather honest about how they see each other. Microsoft appears to believe that Sony has better exclusives than them, for example, while Sony maintains that Microsoft’s consistent discussion of Nintendo being able to survive without a Call Of Duty title completely misses the point of the discussion.
