Lawsuit barred from sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft

In the FTC’s application to the federal court in San Francisco, it was stated that there were concerns that competition in the market would deteriorate if Microsoft were allowed to buy Activision.

In the application, while it was argued that a temporary injunction was necessary to prevent damage to competition, a restraining order was requested from the court.

“We welcome the opportunity to present our case in federal court,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice president. made its assessment.

“We believe that speeding up the legal process in the US will ultimately bring more choice and competition to the market,” Smith said. used the phrases.

The EU approved the purchase, the UK blocked it.

Microsoft, the manufacturer of the Xbox game system, announced its plan to buy Activision Blizzard, the producer of games such as “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft”, for approximately 69 billion dollars in January 2022.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a review of the deal in September 2022 and blocked the acquisition in April this year, citing concerns that the agreement between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard would change the future of the cloud gaming market.

On the other hand, the European Union (EU) had completed its competition review and approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

For EU approval, Microsoft has committed to providing European consumers with 10 years of free cloud gaming services for Activision’s games.