FTC Takes Legal Action to Suspend Microsoft’s $69 Billion Acquisition of Activision: Will the Deal Succeed?

US backtracking?

Thus, the United States is backtracking on the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, and this, while the European Commission has given the green light. Indeed the American competition authority, the FTC, has just entered a San Francisco court in order to temporarily suspend the acquisition at 68.7 billion dollars.

But the decision is not so surprising since the Federal Trade Commission had filed a complaint at the beginning of December, in order to block the operation which will be examined by American justice next summer.

According to the agency, this transaction would raise competition concerns if completed. Xbox maker would gain control over blue-chip franchises, allowing it to stifle competition in high-performance game consoles and subscription services by denying or degrading access to rivals to its popular content.

But this does not seem to bother the American group too much, which considers this procedure as a means of presenting one’s arguments before a judge.

And in the rest of the world?

Recently, the file had known a positive decision. Indeed, the Japanese antitrust administration had validated this merger. Better yet, she sees no risk of significantly restrict competition on this segment.

Finally, only Great Britain remains officially opposed to this takeover. For her, the transaction will result in less competition and will therefore not be cleared. Microsoft already enjoys a powerful position and an edge over other competitors in cloud gaming and this deal would reinforce that advantage by giving it the ability to undermine new, innovative competitors..

The latter said that Microsoft has not effectively addressed concerns in the cloud gaming industry, including issues raised in its latest report.

For its part, we imagine that this suspension should do Sony’s business. Indeed, the Japanese firm was the first to oppose this contract between the two American giants. In addition, the coincidence of the calendar wants the American Congress to look precisely at the practices of the Japanese firm against Microsoft in Japan.