Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
CNBC
In a victory for
FTC loses appeals court bid to temporarily block Microsoft-Activision deal
A federal judge in San Francisco, after five days of court hearings, ruled against the FTC on Tuesday, and the federal agency filed its appeal on Wednesday.
The FTC first sued to block the acquisition last December, then filed for an emergency injunction last month ahead of the deal’s July 18 deadline. The FTC has argued that the transaction was anti-competitive because Microsoft might make some of its games exclusive to its own Xbox game consoles or diminish the experience of Activision games such as the popular Call of Duty titles on rival services should the deal close. Microsoft has said it would instead make the games more widely available.
FTC and Microsoft representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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