Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Appeals court once again upholds Microsoft's acquisition of Activision
Blizzard

Date: Wed, 07 May 2025 21:10:10 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/appeals-court...

The Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's ruling that
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard did not violate antitrust
laws. The Federal Trade Commission had sued to block the merger of these
large gaming brands on claims that the new entity would fall afoul of
antitrust laws. In the court's ruling, released today, the FTC failed to
prove that Microsoft would have blocked access to popular titles such as Call
of Duty on hardware owned by other gaming brands. The appeals court was also
unswayed by the FTC's arguments that the deal would have lessened competition
in gaming subscription services and cloud streaming.

The issue of platform-exclusive titles was one of the core tenets of the
FTC's latest charge against this acquisition. However, the opinion written by
Judge Daniel P. Collins observed that "all major manufacturers have engaged
in this practice." And as Microsoft has been making more and more of its once-
exclusive titles available on new hardware, this may mean that the
competition agency will finally accept the deal as done.

The $68.7 billion deal for Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard closed in
October 2023, but the acquisition has faced multiple challenges from the FTC
at varying stages of the process. In fact, this isn't the first time the
Ninth Circuit Court has rejected the agency's efforts to block the merger.
The competition agency also raised alarms about layoffs after the merger
closed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/appeals-court...
acquisition-of-activision-blizzard-211008049.html?src=rss

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