A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a legal challenge by the Federal Trade Commission to Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard, Reuters reported.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower judges order that said the FTC was not entitled to a preliminary injunction blocking the deal, which closed in 2023.
A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the lower judge had applied the correct standards and said the FTC had not shown it was likely to succeed on its claims that the merger would restrict competition.
A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision came in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission in 2022 against Xbox maker Microsoft.
The FTC, which enforces antitrust law, separately challenged the merger in an internal administrative action. That proceeding was placed on hold in 2023 during President Biden’s administration, pending the 9th Circuit’s decision.
The Activision Blizzard transaction marked the largest-ever acquisition in the video gaming market. The deal closed in late 2023 after competition experts in the UK approved it. The purchase also faced regulatory scrutiny in other international markets.
The FTC’s lawsuit sought an order freezing the Activision transaction while the agency pursued its administrative challenge.
The agency claimed that the Microsoft-Activision tie-up would allow the merged company to fend off competitors to the Xbox console and to its subscription and cloud based gaming business.
XboxEra reported: A federal court today has rendered a verdict on an appeal the FTC filed requesting an injunction against the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The 9th U.S. Court of San Francisco has upheld the ruling of a lower court judge that stated the FTC was not entered to a preliminary injunction. The FTC was attempting to stop Microsoft from Acquiring Activision Blizzard King. The deal was finalized back in 2023, showing how long the wheels of justice can take to our turn in America.
After nearly 2 years of regulatory back and forth between Microsoft, Activision, Sony, and several other gaming companies and government agencies, Microsoft announced today that they have officially acquire Activision-Blizzard-King.
With ABK now under Microsoft, the company is the proprietor of a bounty of valuable IP, including Call of Duty and Diablo. Comments by CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spenser suggest interest in reviving dormant IP in the Activision-Blizzard vault as well.
These comments suggest the company may look to extract as much value as possible from their recently approved purchase that will undoubtedly help the growth of their gaming subscription Game Pass.