Politico are reporting that, "according to three people with knowledge of the matter", the Federal Trade Commission is "likely to file an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of video game giant Activision Blizzard".
The FTC, emboldened by their recent success in stopping the merger of book publishers Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, have made no official announcement yet, and the Politico report says "a lawsuit challenging the deal is not guaranteed".
Read more
Judge Recommends Prison Camp for Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes
Kanye Allegedly Showed Explicit Videos of Kim Kardashian, Hardcore Porn to Yeezy Staffers
This Sports Anime Is <em>Captain Tsubasa</em> Meets <em>Squid Game</em>
Steps are however being made to prepare one, with "much of the heavy lifting" having already been done, like receiving depositions from the bosses of Microsoft (Satya Nadella) and Activision Blizzard (Bobby Kotick). Because of this, it's said that "if the agency does move ahead with a case, it could come as soon as next month".
Any antitrust case would have a fairly clear goal: the FTC would be arguing that allowing a major platform holder to purchase Activision Blizzard, one of the world's biggest third-party publishers, would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
That argument, and process, is already underway in Europe. Earlier this month the European Union "opened a full-scale investigation" into the proposed deal, saying in a statement:
In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, the Competition and Markets Authority is also investigating the deal, saying the merger "may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services".
Interestingly, the Politico report also mentions Google as a "lesser" opponent of the merger, saying "The company has argued that Microsoft has purposely degraded the quality of its Game Pass subscription service when used with Google's Chrome operating system, and owning Activision would further its incentive to do so, ultimately steering hardware sales towards Microsoft and away from Google".
Watch <em>Power Rangers</em>' Touching Tribute to Jason David Frank
New York Becomes First State to Temporarily Ban Some Crypto Mining
11 Psychology Terms You're Misusing, According to Psychologists
Click here to read the full article.
