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Microsoft United States

FTC To File Injunction Seeking To Block Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard (cnbc.com) 28

The Federal Trade Commission is set to file for an injunction on Monday seeking to block Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, CNBC reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter. From the report: By filing for an injunction, the FTC is seeking to stop the acquisition from going through before the deal's July 18 deadline.
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FTC To File Injunction Seeking To Block Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

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  • Microsoft told CNBC it would welcome the injunction as it would bring the case before a federal judge faster.

    • by HBI ( 10338492 )
      Microsoft doesn't care. This is a case of throwing stuff at a wall and seeing if it sticks. If the merger fails, they'll try something else.
    • As I understand it, the FTC director (Lina Khan) is eager to block a prominent merger. While the Kroger-Albertsons merger seems a lot easier to fight, the Microsoft-Activision merger is far more prominent. Microsoft is big tech and she made her name arguing that big tech platforms are inherently anti-competitive. She would probably like to see Microsoft dismantled and certainly doesn't want to see them add any additional pieces. The EU already approved the merger, and the UK (who said no, initially), po

      • by stikves ( 127823 )

        Yes, the agencies (FTC and now CMA) are using their discretion to delay the merger so that the two companies do give up.

        In fact, just today there was a hearing in the UK for CMA's blocking of the deal. They basically want a later court date, citing 100s of excuses, pushing it past the merger's agreed deadline. They are not even wanting to present their case, just delaying as much as possible.

        What worries me is of course, if a bureaucrat can use their discretion against billion dollar companies, what would t

  • A couple of weeks ago this move was blocked in the UK by the CMA and we were told ...

    "Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the American computer games group, attacked Britain after the Competition & Markets Authority blocked their proposed $68.7 billion combination, saying it would reduce innovation and consumer choice"

    That Britain “closed for business”

    I wonder if they will now say the same thing about the USA?

    • EU approved it, and the UK will probably bully the CMA out of the way eventually. It's going to take time. Not sure why the FTC took this long when it looked like the merger was a shoe-in.

  • Microsoft hasn't ruined Minecraft yet, has it? What make you think it would ruin Overwatch or World of Warcraft? If anything, they would probably bring better coding and testing practices.
    • I would guess that they'll clean up some of the shady stuff that Activision is being sued/prosecuted for currently, but it seems like they're pretty hands off with the actual development. Just look at what happened with Redfall. Apparently some of the devs were hoping that Microsoft would step in with management and reboot the game, but they were too hands off and it flopped.

    • They've ruined the login experience for Minecraft, and they've pushed it harder towards the Windows 10 'app' version and away from the Java edition, although that direction may have been inevitable. Were I head of the FTC I'd approve the merge if they promised to never require a Microsoft account for Activision games.

      • Simply put, Java isn't fast enough for a 3D game, so I support the push to bedrock (native exe) instead of Java. That being said, I still run Minecraft in Java, and the fact that gameplay is still so different between the two versions is very annoying. As far as login, that's a valid point. I have an old hotmail email address, so that didn't bother me for Minecraft, but when Oculus decided to force me to login through Facebook, that pissed me off. We still need a good open source authentication service tha

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