The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued to block Microsoft’s planned $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, saying it could suppress competitors to Microsoft’s Xbox game console and its growing games subscription business.
The Activision Blizzard Booth during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, June 13, 2013. The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022, that it is suing to block Microsoft’s planned $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, saying it could suppress competitors to its Xbox game consoles and its growing games subscription business.
Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, signaled in a statement Thursday that the company is likely to challenge the FTC’s decision. Microsoft announced the merger deal in January but has faced months of resistance from Sony, which makes the competing PlayStation console and has raised concerns with antitrust watchdogs around the world about losing access to popular Activision Blizzard game franchises such as the military shooter game Call of Duty.
In an appeal to Biden administration priorities, Microsoft had also sought to characterize its deal as worker-friendly after announcing a “labor neutrality agreement” in June with the Communications Workers of America that would allow workers to unionize after the acquisition closes. The union’s president, Chris Shelton, wrote an opinion column in The Hill this week calling on the FTC to “seal the deal, not blow it up.
Led by FTC Chair Lina Khan, a legal scholar who’s advocated for tougher antitrust enforcement, the commission is made up of three Democrats and one Republican after a second Republican stepped down earlier this year and left an open seat on the panel.
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