Activision Blizzard Inc. will likely abandon a $69 billion takeover bid by Microsoft if the US Federal Trade Commission wins a ruling pausing the deal, the game maker’s chief executive officer told a judge.
Microsoft called Activision CEO Bobby Kotick to testify in San Francisco federal court Wednesday to reinforce its claim that the acquisition won’t hurt competition in the markets for console and subscription-based games.
US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley must decide whether to halt the deal — which has a July 18 closure deadline — while the FTC’s legal challenge to the transaction plays out.
“My board’s view is if the preliminary injunction is granted, we don’t see how this will continue,” Kotick said.
The FTC which says the deal would harm Microsoft’s rivals, including Sony Corp. For example, Microsoft could exclude Activision games, specifically the popular shooter game Call of Duty, from rival Sony PlayStation devices, which dominate the console market, the regulator has said.
Kotick pushed back against that argument. Taking Call of Duty out of PlayStation would be very “detrimental to our business,” he said, adding that gamers would “revolt” if the the top-selling title was pulled from any game platform.
The case represents a major test for the FTC’s ability to block tech deals in court after the agency lost a challenge to an acquisition by Meta Platforms Inc. earlier this year.
The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft Corp., 3:23-cv-02880, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
