A federal judge has blocked a US regulator's attempt to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The Federal Trade Commission had been seeking an emergency block order as it believes that the tech giant purchasing the video game developer - which is vying to do so for $69 billion - would squash competition in the industry as it would hinder other brands like Sony from offering customers titles from their back catalogue like ‘Call of Duty’, ‘World of Warcraft’ and ‘Candy Crush,’ however, the court disagreed with this “assertion”.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley wrote in a ruling: "The FTC has not shown it is likely to succeed on its assertion the combined firm will probably pull Call of Duty from Sony PlayStation, or that its ownership of Activision content will substantially lessen competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming markets.”
The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, admitted he was “grateful” for news - which jetted up the share price of Activision by 10 per cent - as he outlined his attention to focus on the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which ruled against the deal in April.
At the time, it said: "We stand ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction in a way that would address the concerns set out in our final report.”
Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, said in a company-wide memo: "Our merger will benefit consumers and workers. It will enable competition rather than allow entrenched market leaders to continue to dominate our rapidly growing industry.
"We're optimistic that today's ruling signals a path to full regulatory approval elsewhere around the globe, and we stand ready to work with UK regulators to address any remaining concerns so our merger can quickly close."
